Fast food, slow compliance: Maharashtra FDA cracks down on major chains

The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has stepped up its crackdown on food safety violations across the state, with six outlets of major fast-food chains facing regulatory action in recent days. The action covers one Burger King outlet in Pune, four Domino’s Pizza outlets and one Pizza Hut outlet across Mumbai and Satara. The inspections found a range of violations, including inadequate pest control, poor food storage, improper temperature monitoring, weak sanitation practices, and gaps in mandatory food safety records. 

The FDA inspected 104 outlets operated by major restaurant chains on August 11 as part of its “Safe Food, Safe Maharashtra” campaign. The drive covered Domino’s, Pizza Hut, KFC, McDonald’s, Subway, Burger King, Starbucks and Monginis. Of the establishments inspected, 95 received improvement notices, two were ordered to stop operations and five had their food-business licences suspended with immediate effect.

Four of the suspended outlets were Domino’s restaurants operated by Jubilant FoodWorks. Three are in Mumbai--Vile Parle West, Borivali West and R-City Mall in Ghatkopar West, while the fourth is in Malkapur near Karad in Satara district. At the Vile Parle West outlet, inspectors flagged deficiencies involving the display of the FSSAI licence, potable water, food storage, pest control and hygiene facilities. The outlet was also directed to improve temperature monitoring of frozen food, segregate food and non-food items and strengthen measures against rodents and pests. 

The Borivali West outlet was found to have significant compliance gaps, including problems with food storage and temperature monitoring, inadequate segregation of raw and cooked food as well as vegetarian and non-vegetarian food, and poor cleanliness and pest-control measures. Reports based on the FDA findings put its compliance at around 54%.

At the R-City Mall outlet in Ghatkopar, the FDA found no proper documented cleaning and sanitation schedule, inadequate pest-control measures and failures to follow FIFO and FEFO practices for food storage. The outlet also lacked food-grade certificates for materials that come into contact with food, along with records relating to calibration, preventive maintenance, food and water testing and food-handler medical checks.

The Malkapur Domino’s outlet recorded around 40-47% non-compliance, depending on the inspection metric reported, with deficiencies in infrastructure, equipment maintenance, cleanliness, pest control, food storage and testing records. 

The fifth outlet was a Pizza Hut restaurant in Karad operated by Sapphire Foods India. Inspectors found that the outlet was using common ovens and baking trays for vegetarian and non-vegetarian pizzas, raising concerns over food segregation. Sauce bottles and condiment packets kept for customers also lacked proper packaging or expiry date information. The FDA directed the outlet to use separate equipment and improve labelling practices.

Pune’s Camp Burger King sealed

Separately, the FDA sealed the long-running Burger King outlet on East Street in Pune’s Camp area after an inspection found serious hygiene and food-safety shortcomings. The outlet, which has been operating since 1992, had its food licence suspended and was ordered to stop operations. 

The action against the Pune outlet came during another phase of the state’s wider food-safety enforcement campaign. Between August 11 and August 14, FDA inspections in the Pune division covered hotels, restaurants, e-commerce facilities and dairies, with 16 establishments facing suspension of licences or registrations for significant hygiene and food-safety violations. Domino’s and Pizza Hut outlets in Karad and the Camp Burger King were among those facing action. 

The FDA’s wider enforcement drive has also resulted in seizures of food products. During one phase of the campaign, officials seized 698 kg of milk and milk-based products worth ₹34,302, along with another 1,270 kg of food products including milk items, bakery products and edible oil valued at about ₹1.29 lakh. The department also registered 10 FIRs over the sale, distribution and transportation of banned products such as gutkha and pan masala.