Maharashtra’s Food and Drug Administration has filed a police complaint and suspended food-business licenses as it investigates allegations that expired and rejected food was diverted back into the retail supply chain instead of being destroyed.
Reuters reported on October 17 that case documents name officials from Reliance Retail, Reliance Consumer and Eternal-owned Blinkit and Hyperpure, including Blinkit CEO Albinder Dhindsa, as subjects of the probe.
According to the documents reviewed by Reuters, inspectors visited warehouses operated by Reliance Retail, Reliance Consumer and Zomato Hyperpure. Company officials could not provide verifiable proof that contractors had destroyed expired stock, the FDA alleged. At one Hyperpure warehouse, a representative identified a disposal contractor that inspectors could not trace.
How the alleged diversion worked
The FDA’s account describes a chain that began when warehouses handed expired, damaged or customer-rejected products to disposal agencies. Those contractors allegedly moved the goods to unlicensed sorting yards, where workers separated packages that still looked saleable. Brokers then supplied some of those packages to retailers, allowing them to reach the consumer market, according to the case documents.
A New Indian Express report citing an official and PTI said police registered a first information report at Shanti Nagar police station in Thane. It named 10 people connected to the companies, disposal agencies and local suppliers under provisions of India’s Food Safety and Standards Act and Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
The report said seven FDA teams inspected sites in the Thane and Pune districts on October 14 and 15. Authorities seized expired stock valued at about 4.81 million rupees, including goods found at a disposal yard and warehouses operated by Reliance Consumer Products and Hyperpure. Inspectors also reported discrepancies in disposal records and said expired and leaking products were displayed for sale at an unlicensed Bhiwandi shop without purchase bills.
Licenses suspended while the probe continues
The Maharashtra FDA suspended licenses for five establishments, comprising three Reliance entities and two Eternal entities, according to the documents Reuters reviewed. The New Indian Express said officials also halted operations at four unlicensed premises.
Reliance and Blinkit did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. The allegations remain under investigation, and the filing of a police complaint or first information report is not a finding of guilt.
