A Reliance Retail outlet in Maharashtra’s Buldhana and a Blinkit facility in Mumbai’s Malad (West) came under scrutiny as the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stepped up its state-wide enforcement of food safety practices.
People Involved
Investigation by food safety officers revealed severe hygiene and food-safety violations, including large-scale cockroach infestation, improperly stored food, expired and tampered products and non-compliance with FIFO/FEFO (First-In, First-Out and First-Expired, First-Out) practices. The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has suspended the food licence of Blink Commerce Pvt Ltd, the corporate entity that operates the quick commerce brand Blinkit, after an inspection of its Malad (West) facility by food safety officers revealed severe hygiene and food-safety violations, including large-scale cockroach infestation, improperly stored food, and expired and tampered products. Days after reprimanding the Maharashtra FDA for its drastic action against a warehouse of Amazon Retail India, the Bombay high court (HC) on Monday directed the e-commerce giant to hand over all expired and perished goods from the Bhiwandi-based facility to the agency for scientific disposal. As a stopgap arrangement, the court on Monday said that the petitioner shall prepare an inventory of all its expired and perished items from this warehouse and hand them over to the concerned FDA officer.
Investigation and Response
However, a food sample was collected from another batch manufactured on July 20 and valid until October 20. Investigation at the outlet found that the complained-about batch, which was manufactured on May 29 and was due to expire on August 29 – was not available at the outlet.
