From viral posts to raids: How online anger is reshaping India’s food-safety crackdown

New Delhi: India’s food-safety crackdown is being fuelled by an unlikely alliance, with regulators on one side and an increasingly vocal army of social media users on the other.

Across the country, viral posts exposing filthy kitchens, pest infestations and questionable food practices are piling pressure on authorities to act. Government agencies, meanwhile, are stepping up inspections of restaurants, hotels, warehouses and food businesses after years of complaints from consumers about hygiene in India’s $56 billion food-services industry.

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The result is a new feedback loop between the internet and the state: a shocking video or post can trigger public outrage, which can prompt a complaint, which can lead to a regulatory inspection.

Recent raids have uncovered flies, rats and cockroaches, along with expired or adulterated ingredients and improper food storage. Some investigations were triggered directly by complaints submitted through government portals.

The crackdown comes as food-safety concerns have gained traction on platforms such as Instagram and X, where young Indians in particular have become increasingly willing to call out businesses — and government agencies — over everyday grievances.

“There was a lot of pressure from people on social media around this,” Ankur Bisen, senior partner at consumer consultancy The Knowledge Company, told Bloomberg News, citing “massive awareness” about unhygienic food handling and storage practices.

The phenomenon fits into a broader wave of online-led demands for accountability in India, where social media has increasingly become a platform for airing frustrations about public services, businesses and living standards.

“What’s really common among a lot of these movements that are looking at seeking accountability is that there’s this sense of data-oriented public communication that’s happening,” Jitendra Chouksey, a health activist and founder of fitness platform FITTR, told Bloomberg News.

Reformist at FDA

The latest enforcement drive gathered momentum after the appointment of Tukaram Mundhe, a reform-minded bureaucrat, as commissioner of the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration. Maharashtra, the country's richest state, has since emerged as one of the most aggressive centres of the campaign.

The Maharashtra FDA has carried out more than 3,000 spot checks since May, suspending operations at establishments ranging from exclusive clubs to fast-food chains.

Also Read: Indian food safety officer Tukaram Mundhe shakes up Mumbai, one viral raid at a time

The push has since spread well beyond the state, with regulators in places including Jammu and Kashmir and Karnataka stepping up inspections.

“We eat out so many times more than what our parents used to eat,” Aditi Thakur, a 24-year-old finance professional in Bengaluru who posts on Instagram about food-safety concerns, told Bloomberg News.

Since April, Indian regulators have carried out more than 24,000 raids, nearly two-thirds of the total number of inspections conducted in the entire year through March 2023, according to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s online database.

The businesses flagged this year include five-star hotels such as the JW Marriott in New Delhi and upscale establishments including the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai. JW Marriott’s local operations said last week that it was cooperating with authorities and would take appropriate measures based on the findings.

The heightened scrutiny also comes amid growing international concern over Indian food-safety standards. Japan banned imports of some Indian products, including mangoes, this year over alleged pest-control lapses. In 2024, countries including Singapore banned products from certain Indian spice brands amid concerns about possible contamination with carcinogenic pesticides.

Mundhe’s aggressive approach has won him a large following online — he himself has more than a million Instagram followers — but has also drawn criticism from restaurant owners. The Bombay High Court has criticised him for taking what local media described as a “pedantic instead of pragmatic view.”

Mundhe, however, sees the campaign as part of a wider effort to modernise India. Counterfeit and adulterated products hurt consumers as well as the country’s reputation overseas, he told Bloomberg News in July.

Quick commerce gets caught in the net

The crackdown is also reaching India’s rapidly expanding quick-commerce industry.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and the Maharashtra FDA have separately taken action against quick-commerce operators including Eternal's Blinkit and Swiggy’s Instamart over alleged hygiene violations at warehouses.

Also Read: Food safety row: Eateries' body says fix the problem, not the blame

The central regulator has also targeted major packaged-food companies such as Dabur India over allegedly misleading labels. Dabur said last month that it was phasing out the problematic labelling, while Blinkit did not immediately respond to a request for comment to Bloomberg.

Enforcement is gathering pace ahead of India’s festive season, which begins this month and runs through Diwali in November. The period typically brings a surge in spending on restaurants, sweets, packaged food and gifts.

In Jammu and Kashmir, authorities this week banned the sale, storage and distribution of certain batches of ghee. In Gujarat’s capital, more than 11,000 food establishments have been asked to install cameras inside their kitchens, according to local media reports. Karnataka’s FDA has been seizing and destroying food products deemed unfit for consumption.

From viral outrage to public pressure

The growing role of social media has been welcomed by consumers, many of whom see viral posts as a way of forcing action where traditional enforcement has fallen short.

The National Restaurants Association of India, however, has urged regulators to focus on education and give businesses an opportunity to correct deficiencies without “unnecessary loss of reputation, public naming and shaming, or repeated reassessments that may amount to harassment.”

The industry body said it was running an awareness programme on best practices and called for a “collaborative” and balanced regulatory environment.

There are also questions about whether some of the enforcement is more about optics than sustainable improvements in food safety.

Prakash Shetty, who runs a casual restaurant in southern Mumbai, said regulators were using excessive tactics and imposing overly harsh penalties.

“Rats are here. Cockroaches are here,” Shetty said in Hindi, referring to the pests as a ubiquitous presence in the city. “No one is making such errors on purpose. As restaurant owners, it’s our duty that no one falls sick after visiting us.”

For consumers, however, the outrage shows little sign of fading. What once might have remained a complaint to friends or a bad review can now become a viral post — and, increasingly, a reason for regulators to show up at the door.