Maharashtra state’s food safety
chief has intensified a crackdown on the food and grocery
industries, suspending the permits of 12 warehouses of Indian
grocery giants Eternal, Swiggy and Zepto
after finding cockroach infestations and other unhygienic
conditions.
The latest raids targeting the “quick commerce” sector,
where companies deliver groceries within minutes, come after the
state’s new food safety head, Tukaram Mundhe, 51, shut some of
Mumbai’s most popular eateries for poor hygiene.
Reports of food contamination are common in India’s local
eateries, and Maharashtra’s drive and Mundhe are gathering
social media attention because historically there has been
little enforcement of food safety standards.
Earlier this week, Mundhe’s department shut four Domino’s
outlets, a brand that is India’s biggest fast-food chain
and typically considered to have stricter safety protocols.
The state’s FDA said in a statement on Friday that it had
inspected 86 establishments, issued 60 “improvement notices”,
and suspended the permits of five warehouses of Eternal’s
Blinkit, five of Zepto’s, and two of Swiggy’s Instamart.
Swiggy and Eternal declined to comment, and Zepto did not
respond to queries from Reuters.
Swiggy and Zepto have roughly 1,100 delivery outlets each in
India, and Blinkit has 2,200, according to Datum Intelligence.
At one of the food storage facilities of Blinkit, India’s
biggest quick commerce company, according to the release from
Mundhe’s office on Friday, inspectors found a cockroach
infestation and rotten vegetables, and inspections at other
sites turned up rodent droppings and unhygienic conditions.
At a Zepto warehouse in Nashik in northwestern Maharashtra
state, delivery staff were entering storage areas in street
footwear, raising cross-contamination risks, the state FDA
statement also said.
Other photos shared by the state FDA showed rusted and dirty
storage racks, with cockroaches crawling around food items.
“We will not tolerate any playing with public health,”
Mundhe said in the FDA statement, warning of tougher action
against unsafe food preparation and unhygienic food storage.