A food safety officer has become a social media star in India - why?

A food safety officer has become a social media star in India - why?

Since taking charge as Maharashtra's food commissioner in May, Mundhe has overseen thousands of inspections of cafes and restaurants

The images are difficult to overlook.

Cockroaches run across kitchen floors. Spider webs stick to walls. Rotten vegetables decay in corners, while food counters bear signs of pest infestation.

You might think these scenes came from a failing restaurant. But the photos are from a members-only club in Mumbai - India’s financial capital and the capital of its richest state, Maharashtra.

They are among dozens of photos and videos that have gone viral since May, after Maharashtra's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched a series of inspections at restaurants, cafes and other food businesses across the state.

At the heart of the crackdown is 51-year-old civil servant Tukaram Mundhe, the state's new food commissioner.

Since taking charge in May, Mundhe has overseen thousands of inspections and says food safety laws must be enforced no matter a business's size, influence or reputation.

His department has suspended the licences of several quick-commerce warehouses and issued notices to Bollywood celebrities for running advertisements suspected of indirectly promoting restricted products.

"These actions are taken in public health interest. We will continue to take them against violations," Mundhe told the BBC.

The campaign has turned Mundhe into a familiar face across India, which is unusual for a civil servant.

Videos of his inspections and press briefings spread widely on social media, where reels and podcasts have made him an unlikely celebrity.

But the attention - and the controversy that often accompanies it - is nothing new for him.

An officer in the Indian Administrative Service, Mundhe has more than two decades of experience and has been transferred so often that reports say the number is greater than his years in service, though he refuses to confirm it.

"I have stopped counting my transfers," he told the BBC.

Supporters view the transfers as proof of his uncompromising manner. Critics say that same confrontational style has put him at odds with colleagues and elected representatives.

Over the past decade, Mundhe has earned praise for his handling of the Covid pandemic while serving as Nagpur city's municipal commissioner, and earlier for his work on water conservation in Maharashtra's drought-prone areas.

"When he was transferred out of Nagpur during the pandemic, thousands showed up outside his home to bid him farewell. It took him an hour just to reach his car," says Shafi Pathan, a journalist who wrote Mundhe's biography in the local Marathi language.

But his food-safety crackdown has brought him the greatest attention so far.

India's food-safety problem is severe, and figures presented to parliament in July give a sense of how widespread it is.

Of 223,808 food samples tested across India in 2025 and 2026, nearly one in five, external were found to be "non-conforming" - meaning the samples were unsafe, substandard or mislabelled.

Mundhe has answered with an unusually forceful enforcement drive.

By the end of July, his department had conducted more than 3,100 inspections across the state - a figure he expects has since passed 4,000.

About 300 licences had been suspended and more than 1,000 improvement notices issued. A new complaints portal had also received more than 16,000 complaints in its first three months, Mundhe said.

"Hygiene has always been a problem here," Pawan Agarwal, former chief of India's food regulator, told the BBC. "What Mundhe has done differently is make it visible".

Agarwal says consumers have reacted positively to that visibility. Unlike India's usual system, where food safety cases and consumer complaints can take years to move through regulators and courts, enforcement actions are now unfolding in public.

The campaign has also made Mundhe a social media star - he now has more than 3.8 million followers on Instagram.

Still, while consumers welcome the speed and visibility of his actions, many in the food industry are far less pleased.

Restaurant associations say the official has bypassed a statutory process, while courts have described some of his actions as "high-handed".

Under India's food safety laws, businesses are generally given time to correct violations before regulators suspend or cancel their licences. Regulators may suspend licences immediately only in urgent public health situations, but they must record their reasons.

"While compliance is non-negotiable, high-handed approaches - like public naming-and-shaming, instant suspensions over minor procedural or rectifiable issues and treating administrative oversights with harsh penal measures - create panic rather than reform," said Niranjan Laxman Shetty, legal chairman of hospitality association Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association.

In response to the criticism, Mundhe said his raids are lawful and that suspensions are reserved for extreme cases. However, some businesses have publicly said they were shut down over minor violations, without warning or a chance to improve first.

His actions have also been challenged in court. In some cases, judges have overturned licence suspensions, ordered compensation for affected businesses and criticised the regulator's approach.

In August, for example, the Bombay high court ordered, external Mundhe's department to pay 500,000 rupees ($5,291; £3,893) in compensation to a sweets shop whose licence stayed suspended even after a reinspection found it 98% compliant with the law.

The court said the regulator's intentions were "laudable" but that it had "gone overboard".

The judges also asked whether the regulator was applying the same scrutiny to government establishments as to private businesses.

Within a day of that criticism, Mundhe's team inspected canteens in the state's high court complex and found violations.

For Mundhe, that shows the rules apply equally to everyone.

"Had the food business operators or establishment complied with existing regulations, I would not be needed to take those actions," Mundhe told the BBC.

He also says they are not trying to shut businesses down, only to ensure safety.

"We are not here to close down or suspend every licensee," he said at an event last week. "We are here to ensure food is safe, food is not substandard, it is not misbranded and it is good for consumption."

The restaurant inspections - which dominate social media - are only one part of his work.

Mundhe has enforced bans on using newspapers to wrap food, synthetic dyes and banned analogue paneer - non-dairy cottage cheese substitutes.

The focus has now moved to schools. The department has ordered canteens, hostel kitchens and midday meal suppliers to secure proper licences, and banned the sale of food high in fat, sugar or salt within 50m of schools.

But the bigger question is what happens when Mundhe moves on to his next post.

"The efforts of Mundhe have created a nationwide awareness about food safety, both amongst businesses and consumers, which is desirable - but not sustainable," says Agarwal.

He adds that the challenge is to build systems that last beyond one officer.

For now, though, the impact is being felt even on the streets.

Yuvraj Yadav, who sells sandwiches in a Mumbai suburb, says he used to wrap them in discarded newspapers, despite worries that chemicals in the printing ink can seep into food. He recently switched to greaseproof paper after hearing about the ban.

"We started this a few months ago after newspapers were not allowed for packing as it's bad for health," he says.