FDA Seizes ₹17.52-Crore Food Stock In Navi Mumbai Over Alleged Date Tampering And Relabelling

Mumbai: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Thane, and Navi Mumbai Crime Branch have seized 4,942 cartons of food products worth Rs 17.52 crore from a Turbhe-based establishment for allegedly tampering with manufacturing and expiry dates and altering ingredient and nutritional information on packaged food.

Raid Conducted At Turbhe Unit

The action was carried out between August 24 and 29 at M/s Sadhana Enterprises in the TTC Industrial Area, Turbhe. According to the FDA, the establishment was storing food products belonging to 10 exporters and allegedly erasing the original manufacturing and expiry/use-by dates before printing new dates on the packages.

Officials also found new stickers being placed over the original ingredient and nutritional information on certain products before they were repacked and allegedly offered for resale.

Popular Brands Among Seized Items

The seized stock included popular products such as Lay's chips, Kurkure, Bingo, Fun Flips, Maggi noodles, Rasoi ready-to-eat products, Knorr soup, Hellmann's mayonnaise, Thums Up and Limca. The stock was linked to exporters based in Mumbai, Delhi and Noida.

The FDA also seized unlabelled and expired food products worth around Rs 1.30 lakh. Samples were collected from three other establishments — M/s Unique Fragrances, M/s Pristine Worldwide and M/s Vipul Doshi — for allegedly not possessing the required FSSAI licence and purchase bills.

An FIR has been registered at Turbhe Police Station against the partners of Sadhana Enterprises and concerned exporters under various provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, and Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. The FDA has also suspended the establishment's food licence with immediate effect.

The action was conducted under the directions of Maharashtra Food Safety Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe and Sachin Jadhav, Joint Commissioner (Food), Thane. Mundhe said the administration would not tolerate any activity compromising consumer health and warned that strict action against the storage and sale of expired or tampered food products would continue.

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