{
  "id": 2932521,
  "title": "Food safety raids at restaurants: The bigger challenge is what happens next",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/24/food-safety-raids-at-restaurants-the-bigger-challenge-is-what-happens",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-08-24T03:14:36.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Indian Express",
    "slug": "the-indian-express",
    "url": "https://indianexpress.com/article/health-wellness/food-safety-raids-restaurants-challenge-10846681/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "At a century-old restaurant in Pune, known for its traditional Maharashtrian food, owner Kishore Sarpotdar follows strict food safety protocols. These include regular pest control, temperature checks on refrigerators, oil fryers, and staff training. He ensures hand-wash stations have soap and water, and has exhaust systems, insect-proof doors, and windows. Sarpotdar, who leads the Pune Restaurants and Catering Association, verifies adherence to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) rules. This routine has been in place for years, but it's intensified recently under Maharashtra FDA Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe.\n\nSo far, the approach seems to be working. Since May, Maharashtra FDA has conducted over 3,000 inspections, resulting in 165 license suspensions and 750 improvement notices. Pune led the way with 691 inspections, including 53 license suspensions and 408 improvement notices. However, the challenge isn't merely the number of inspections conducted. It's about ensuring that compliance becomes a consistent part of restaurant operations, not just a temporary measure when inspections are underway.\n\nThe Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) revised its licensing requirements in April 2022. Depending on their annual turnover, food businesses must now obtain either an FSSAI registration, a State FSSAI licence, or a Central FSSAI licence. This change brings more businesses under regulation, but it's not a guarantee of compliance. For example, even among larger licensed establishments, around 2,300 improvement notices were issued last year in the western region.\n\nFSSAI's regional director, Pritee Chaudhary, attributes many non-compliance issues to a lack of awareness and education. They have taken steps to address this, including training street vendors, students, and other groups on detection of adulteration and food safety practices. In Mumbai, they've trained over 10,000 street food vendors and held more than 60 officer-led training programs focused on street hygiene. They've seen an improvement in personal hygiene practices in food preparation and serving.\n\nNevertheless, Akash Chakor, founder of Foodkida, a food auditing and consultancy firm, suggests making food safety training and certification, or FoSTac, mandatory before a food licence is issued. He believes many food operators lack awareness of food safety laws and the importance of FoSTac. While training is crucial, Chakor argues that businesses must understand and implement their training to truly change their practices. Simply having a checklist—like maintaining a refrigerator at a specific temperature, following hygiene protocols, or keeping a food safety register—does not ensure these actions are consistently carried out in the absence of inspections.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [
    "Maharashtra FDA conducts over 3,000 inspections since May, leading to 165 license suspensions.",
    "Pune leads inspections with 691, including 53 suspensions and 408 improvement notices."
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}