Uttar Pradesh’s Food Safety and Drug Administration has seized 655 kg of food items, destroyed 537 kg of material and shut nine establishments after inspections found serious hygiene violations at sweet and food manufacturing units in six cities ahead of Diwali.
The inspections were conducted in Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Ayodhya and Prayagraj. According to an official cited by the Times of India, 69 teams inspected 116 food establishments and collected 149 food samples. The teams issued 96 improvement notices and destroyed food material valued at Rs 1.98 lakh.
The enforcement drive found sweets stored directly on dirty floors, along with cockroaches, flies, rat droppings and cobwebs at some manufacturing sites. Officials also detected the use of banned chemicals and cases where food businesses were operating without licences. Nine establishments were shut down over what the administration described as serious irregularities.
In Kanpur Nagar, inspectors found extreme filth and a foul smell at a sweet shop’s manufacturing site. Food items were stored in unhygienic conditions and the drainage system was clogged. In Gorakhpur, a manufacturing unit was found in an extremely dirty condition, with broken walls and garbage on the premises. One establishment there did not have a food business licence.
The findings in Meerut included the use of banned chemicals and non-food-grade sodium bicarbonate at a sweet shop. Inspectors also reported poor drainage and inadequate pest-control arrangements at the establishment. In Ghaziabad, raw materials were being stored directly on the floor at a sweet shop, while cockroaches and insects were found at a storage site in Sahibabad.
In Ayodhya, officials found sweets stored amid filth and contaminated water. At one establishment, dirty water had accumulated on the floor alongside food ingredients, while a foul smell had spread across the premises. The findings indicate that the enforcement challenge involved not only the quality of finished food products but also the basic conditions in which ingredients were stored and processed.
The inspection figures show the scale of the pre-festival enforcement operation: teams visited nearly two food establishments for every three samples collected, while improvement notices were issued to a large share of the establishments inspected. The action also combined administrative measures with physical disposal of food material considered unsuitable for consumption.
For consumers, the inspections place the food-safety system’s role beyond product testing. Licensing, drainage, pest control, storage practices, waste management and the condition of manufacturing premises all form part of the chain that determines whether food sold in urban markets is safe. The cases reported from the six cities show how failures in basic premises management can directly enter that chain.
The FSDA’s immediate action included issuing notices, seizing and destroying food items, and shutting units where violations were considered serious. The supplied report does not specify the subsequent penalties, sample-test results or reopening conditions for the establishments that were closed. Further action will therefore depend on the compliance process following the notices and inspections.
