A new FDA commissioner shifted enforcement from testing milk at the shop to tracing it from the collection centre. The results have unsettled the state’s dairy trade.
Milk is tested in India the way most food is tested: a sample is picked up from a retailer, sent to a laboratory, and a result arrives weeks later. By then the batch has been consumed.
Maharashtra’s Food and Drug Administration has spent the past two months working the other way round, following milk from the collection centre forward.
What Changed on 25 May
Tukaram Mundhe, a 2005-batch IAS officer of the Maharashtra cadre, took charge as FDA Commissioner on 25 May 2026. The enforcement drive began the same day.
His directive extended inspections across the entire dairy chain rather than the retail end alone: milk collection centres, processing units, transport vehicles, distributors, wholesalers and shops. Teams were asked to examine documentation, cold-chain maintenance and traceability, so that a violation could be located at the stage where it occurred.
What the Drive Has Found
The department has reported more than 230 FIRs and over 350 arrests during the early phase, along with seizures of allegedly adulterated products and banned items. Reports place the number of raids over roughly two months above 1,100, covering wholesalers, manufacturers, retailers and eateries.
Seized food products have been valued at approximately 49.57 crore rupees, including over 1.6 lakh litres of allegedly adulterated milk. The FDA has said it identified units allegedly producing synthetic milk.
These are allegations at the investigation stage. They have not been tested in court, and the businesses concerned are entitled to contest them.
Mundhe’s Record, and the Backlash
Born in 1975 in Tadsonna village of Beed district to a farming family, Mundhe studied at a Zilla Parishad school before taking degrees in history and political science in Aurangabad. He is known for a confrontational enforcement style and for being transferred roughly 25 times in 21 years of service.
Mundhe has said the aim is to ensure safe food reaches consumers while protecting businesses that follow the rules, and has noted a drop in milk and paneer supply since the action began. Police have reportedly registered threats made against him and his family. A parallel drive against banned gutkha has covered around 904 locations.
The Wise Take
Enforcement surges of this kind raise an uncomfortable question that has little to do with the officer leading them: what was happening before 25 May. If a fortnight of inspections can surface synthetic milk units that existed all along, the gap was never detection capability but the decision to look. That is also the drive’s vulnerability. Enforcement built on one commissioner’s appetite tends to end when the commissioner is transferred, and Mundhe has been transferred often. Whether Maharashtra ends up with a traceability system or simply a memorable two months is the thing worth following.
