Maharashtra FDA suspends licences of five Domino's outlets in Pune and Kolhapur

The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration has suspended the operating licences of five Domino's Pizza outlets across Pune and Kolhapur after hygiene inspections uncovered live cockroaches, dead insect remains, and widespread food safety violations.

The regulatory action targets branches run by Jubilant FoodWorks Limited, the master franchise operator for Domino's Pizza in India. Official orders suspended licences on 14 and 15 October following surprise inspections of more than 50 company locations across the Pune division.

What inspectors found at Domino's outlets

State food safety officers reported serious failures in handling, preparation, and storage across the affected kitchens. At multiple premises, inspectors found live cockroaches and pest remains in zones where staff prepared meals and held ingredients.

Officials recorded food waste piling up around surfaces used to handle raw pizza bases. The five outlets also lacked separate equipment for vegetarian and non-vegetarian preparation, failed to maintain required cold-chain temperature logs, and omitted mandatory identification records for food distribution staff. Outside several branches, delivery boxes mounted on motorbikes were left open along public roads, exposing containers to street dust and contamination.

Maharashtra drives statewide food safety standards

The penalties against the global chain reflect an aggressive institutional campaign by the Maharashtra government to enforce consumer protection laws across the food services sector. Since Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe took charge of the department in May, regulators have conducted 19,713 inspections across hotels, restaurants, dark stores, and wholesale processors.

The state's systematic oversight has led to 892 licence suspensions and 1,538 stop-business notices across all food categories. Within the dining hospitality sector alone, officers reviewed 5,335 establishments, suspending 585 licences and cancelling 15 outright.

Alongside kitchen hygiene checks, state teams have seized substandard, adulterated, and illicit stock valued at over ₹50.63 crore. Enforcement drives have impounded ₹21.01 crore of adulterated milk, banned analogue paneer supplies, and seized ₹27.86 crore of prohibited tobacco goods, resulting in 1,175 police first information reports and 1,529 arrests.

Tighter rules for commercial chains and spices

Maharashtra is pairing ground inspections with structural regulatory changes. The administration has banned the retail sale of loose, unpacked spice powders, making sealed packaging at the point of origin mandatory to ensure traceability and stop dangerous adulterants like lead chromate and industrial dyes. The state has also prohibited ethylene oxide spice sterilisation.

To keep pace with the expansion of quick commerce and delivery aggregators, the FDA set up a public grievance portal in July. The system has logged 13,857 consumer submissions with a 71.8 percent resolution rate, using automated screening to eliminate fraudulent complaints.

State officials confirmed that inspections of commercial food chains, dark stores, and cloud kitchens will continue across Maharashtra to guarantee food safety compliance regardless of brand scale.