Ahmedabad’s municipal food department has reported action against food manufacturers and sellers during the festive season after testing samples from products including ghee, butter, sauces, street-food ingredients and other items. However, the report contains a material discrepancy over the number of samples that failed quality testing: its headline refers to 21, while the account attributed to municipal food department head Dr Tejas Shah states that 27 samples were declared non-compliant.
According to the report, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s food department collected 841 samples of milk and milk products, sweets, fafda, jalebi, mouth fresheners, bakery products, namkeen and farsan, gram flour, refined flour, edible oil, spices and other food items during October and November. The article states that the samples were tested after increased sales of food products during the Diwali period.
The products identified in the report include loose ghee, butter, tomato sauce, pani puri water, dabeli, snack toppings, low-fat paneer, cow ghee and methi. The report names businesses and locations across areas including Shahpur, Anandnagar, Maninagar, Gurukul, Hathijan, Ghatlodia, Bhadaj, Ognaj, Nikol, Vastral, Vejalpur, Bhaipura and the S P Ring Road. The source does not provide the individual laboratory findings or specify the exact regulatory parameter breached for each sample.
Dr Shah is quoted as saying that action would be taken under the Food Safety and Standards Act against the traders from whose premises the samples were collected. The report says the municipal teams inspected 2,226 food producers and sellers between October 1 and November 2. Notices were issued to 660 establishments for violations of food-safety and related rules, while administrative charges amounting to Rs 11,28,500 were collected.
The enforcement drive also resulted in the destruction of approximately 2,600 kilograms or litres of allegedly unhealthy food stock, according to the report. In addition, 19 establishments were sealed for reasons including the absence of a Food Safety and Standards Authority of India licence or registration, unhygienic conditions, suspected adulteration of food materials and failure in tests measuring total polar compounds in frying oil.
The figures point to the scale of municipal food-safety enforcement during a high-consumption period, but they do not by themselves establish how widespread unsafe food is across Ahmedabad. The reported inspections covered a defined period and a limited set of samples, while the article does not provide a comparison with the total number of food businesses operating in the city or the proportion of samples collected from each product category.
The report also states that Ahmedabad’s food department collected 4,071 samples during 2025, of which 131 were declared non-compliant. It does not clarify whether the 2025 figure follows the same testing methodology or covers the same categories as the latest enforcement exercise.
The municipal department’s reported next step is to proceed against the concerned traders under food-safety law. Verification is required to reconcile the 21-sample figure in the headline with the 27-sample figure attributed to the municipal official before the final number can be treated as established.
