Rats, Maggots... FDA's Recent Crackdown On 239 Eateries In Mumbai Reveals Shocking Levels Of Violations

The Food And Drug Administration (FDA) has come down heavily on restaurants and eateries across Mumbai for violating food safety norms, leading to lifelong health complications among residents.

Since August, the FDA has conducted raids on 239 restaurants, of which 22 establishments with severe violations were given work closure notice, while 170 restaurants were served with improvement notices.

Senior officials said that all of them had violated Food Safety Act 1990 and during inspection dirty kitchens, stale food, expired items and ants and cockroaches seemed to be common issues.

FDA Jt. Commissioner On Ongoing Raids

Shailesh Adhao, Joint Commissioner (Food), FDA, said there was a need to strictly inspect these eateries as most of them were violating norms and residents did not know where to complaint. The FDA took action following a complaint by a diner in Bandra who discovered a rat in his food, a shocking incident with high health risks.

“Every year we inspect eateries but this time since August we have intensified the inspections and found most of them were not following basic food safety norms. Eateries were running without licence and staffers did not have health certificates,” Adhao said.

Shocking Revelations During FDA Raids

He further said that the FDA found kitchens dirty with stale foods in coolers, and open spaces attracting ants and cockroaches. “Our screening process evaluates eateries on approximately 80 to 90 critical parameters. Moreover violations includes the presence of cockroaches, rats, maggots, and stale vegetables at three outlets in Bademiya. At The Burn-Bar & Kitchen at Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) we found that the restaurant had no proper segregation of vegetarian and non-vegetarian food, resulting in possible cross-contamination,” he added.

Meanwhile, health experts said that consuming unhygienic food can result in foodborne illnesses with symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, and abdominal pain. In severe cases, it can lead to long-term health complications.