This is part 6 of 6 in ‘80 Failures, Fractures and Food-Safety Episodes That the Celebration of Indian Food Must Also Own’, an analysis by Avinash Mudaliar.
Food Fraud and Trust at Scale
65. The 2020 honey investigation showed how adulteration can evade individual tests. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) reported that 17 of 22 honey samples from 13 brands failed at least one purity test. Some samples passed the checks for C3 and C4 sugars and were flagged by nuclear magnetic resonance or other tests. In a separate experiment, CSE deliberately added syrups marketed as able to evade routine checks and tested the mixtures. The retail results describe the products it sampled. The spiking experiment shows how specific syrups behaved in specific tests. The value of the investigation lies in bringing both kinds of evidence to a product sold on trust.
66. Adulteration of mustard oil has caused outbreaks of epidemic dropsy. In 1998, a major outbreak in Delhi was linked to mustard oil contaminated with argemone oil. A 2021 surveillance report from Gujarat documented a later outbreak with laboratory confirmation. A clinical study of the Delhi outbreak recorded leg swelling and, in severe cases, heart failure. The two episodes show what is at stake when a familiar cooking oil passes through a supply chain that households have little means to trace.
67. The national milk survey found different problems at different points in the supply chain. In 2018, FSSAI examined 6,432 milk samples from organised and unorganised channels in towns and cities. It confirmed adulteration that made milk unsafe in 12 samples. Separately, 368 samples had aflatoxin M1 above the permissible limit. The latter is a contamination finding. It can arise when dairy animals eat contaminated feed. Adulteration, contaminants and compositional failures call for different responses. Testing, chilling and traceability matter across the routes by which milk reaches consumers.
68. Lead chromate in turmeric shows how a preference for colour can become a source of exposure. A 2024 study detected evidence of lead chromate in turmeric sampled at locations in South Asia, including Patna. Earlier research in Bangladesh documented its use as a yellow pigment. The findings are specific to the samples and places studied. The World Health Organization says no level of lead exposure is known to be without harmful effects, particularly for children. That is what makes this kind of adulteration consequential. The colour looks familiar even when the substance responsible for it is different.
69. Regulators have documented ghee adulteration outside the Tirupati case. In August 2025, FSSAI reported seizing about 6,500 kg of adulterated ghee from a dairy unit in Rajkot, Gujarat, in a surveillance drive targeting substitution with foreign fats. In a separate 2026 case, the authority announced action over ghee produced in Daman. These actions concern the products and operators named in each notice. The incentive is easy to see. A cheaper fat can be sold at a dairy-ghee price if the buyer and the people testing the product accept it as genuine.
70. Food hygiene begins at the water source. In 2019, the Bureau of Indian Standards tested piped drinking water at selected locations in Delhi and 20 other cities. Mumbai’s samples met all the parameters reported for them. Samples from locations in several other cities failed one or more tests, and some results outside Delhi were still pending at the time of the report. These were findings for sampled points on a particular survey. For a food business, the water used to wash ingredients, dilute a product or cook a meal is part of the safety of the finished food.
Looking Forward: The Gaps Still Unfilled
71. Food regulation depends on where accredited testing is available and what it can establish. On 7 August 2026, the Union health ministry reported 259 notified NABL-accredited food-testing laboratories. It separately listed 24 referral labs and 305 mobile units. The three figures describe different functions. The adequacy of the network depends on where laboratories are located, which tests they are accredited to run and how quickly samples can be handled. The Maggi ruling showed the consequences when the tests used to support an order fall short of the legal requirements for that case.
72. A delivery-app star rating and a kitchen hygiene assessment answer different questions. A customer can rate an order from the experience of receiving and eating it. A hygiene assessment examines conditions at the premises. FSSAI runs a voluntary Hygiene Rating Scheme, and Zomato describes a separate auditor-based initiative. A diner looking for safety information needs to know what kind of rating is on display, when it was issued and which kitchen or premises it covers. The convenience of a platform makes it a natural place to display that distinction.
73. Front-of-pack nutrition labelling is a question of what a shopper can grasp at a glance. FSSAI’s 2022 draft proposed an Indian Nutrition Rating using stars. That is a different design from a front-of-pack warning for a product high in a particular nutrient. The Supreme Court sought an implementation timeline in September 2026, and subsequent reporting on the regulator’s filing described a proposed transition period for warnings. Existing labelling obligations and a proposal for a new warning are different stages of regulation. For someone comparing two packages at the shelf, the format and timing of the information matter.
74. Pesticide-residue limits matter in the domestic market and at the border. A Rajya Sabha reply on national monitoring reported 86,401 samples analysed from 2022 to 2025 across several food categories, with 2.8% exceeding FSSAI maximum residue limits. That percentage covers the commodities monitored together. Exporters must also meet the importing market’s rules, as APEDA’s grape export protocol illustrates. A pesticide’s approval for use, the level allowed in a particular food and the level accepted by a trading partner are separate questions. Testing has to be able to answer each one.
75. Fraud detection depends on what each method can see. In CSE’s honey investigation, nuclear magnetic resonance flagged some samples that had passed separate checks for C3 and C4 sugars. The C4 check used isotope ratios. A 2021 parliamentary reply described NMR as outside FSSAI’s mandatory testing requirements at the time. FSSAI’s 2024 honey methods manual includes isotope-ratio techniques and tests for foreign oligosaccharides. Testing capability and routine regulatory requirements can differ. The useful question is which combination of validated tests gives laboratories a better chance of identifying a particular form of adulteration.
76. The millet revival will be judged in mills, shops and kitchens. The International Year of Millets gave the grains visibility. It also sat alongside investments in processing. The Ministry of Food Processing Industries reported approvals for 4,612 micro enterprises under a scheme supporting millet processing, as of the end of 2025. State initiatives documented by NITI Aayog include processing and distribution models. The scale of actual use and the prices families pay are separate measures. Jowar, bajra, ragi and other millets will be easier to bring back into everyday meals when people can buy them at workable prices and prepare them without difficulty.
77. Small food businesses need the basic services that make hygiene possible. Eligible petty food businesses, including small vendors, fall under FSSAI’s registration framework. Projects such as the Clean Street Food Hub initiative have documented practical gaps, including access to clean water and sanitation, at particular sites. Handwashing, waste disposal and storage are conditions that vendors and local authorities have to make work every day. Enforcement can identify a problem. Public infrastructure can help a small business meet the standard in the first place.
78. Live-bird markets bring animal health and human exposure into the same place. India has recorded outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 in poultry. The national poultry disease action plan also documents circulation of low-pathogenic H9N2 in poultry and live-bird markets. These are distinct findings. Research on live-bird shops in Gujarat examines how pathogens can enter a shop and where people handling birds may be exposed. Measures that address those points can protect market workers and the livelihoods that depend on keeping birds healthy.
79. Agriculture draws heavily on the water that future harvests will need. The OECD’s 2025 review put agriculture at 87% of India’s total water abstractions. A separate 2022 groundwater assessment attributed about 208.49 of 239.16 billion cubic metres of annual groundwater extraction to irrigation. These figures measure different bodies of water. Crop research also shows how much output per unit of water varies with region, crop and irrigation practice. The policy task is to take water productivity as seriously as procurement and yield, so that today’s harvests leave room for those that follow.
80. Celebration carries a cost when it shields institutions from accountability. India has a historically rooted and biodiverse food culture and has built a food-security system of extraordinary scale. Its achievements can stand beside the record of a primary-school meal that killed 23 children in Bihar, an investigation that alleged the substitution of ghee used for Tirupati laddus and a UN estimate that about 2.13 crore children under five in India had wasting in 2024. Each case points to a different obligation. Taking all of them seriously is part of taking Indian food seriously.
The inheritance is magnificent. The systems carrying it from field and warehouse to kitchen, app and school require honest repair. The measure of that work is whether the food Indians cook, sell, export and feed their children is safe, varied and within reach, and whether the people who grow and prepare it can do so with dignity.
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