The Food and Drug Administration’s raids in Thane and Pune have led to an FIR against 10 people, including officials and employees linked to Reliance Retail, Blinkit and Zomato Hyperpure, over the alleged resale of expired, spoiled, rejected and customer-returned food products. The FDA said stock worth Rs 48 lakh was uncovered during coordinated action on October 14 and 15.
The case was registered at Thane’s Shanti Nagar police station against company officials and employees, disposal agency operators and local suppliers. According to the FDA’s police complaint, the products were meant to be destroyed after disposal but were allegedly routed through disposal agencies, middlemen and unlicensed sorting centres for resale in the open market.
The FDA has suspended five warehouse licences belonging to Reliance Consumer Products, Reliance Retail, Zomato Hyperpure and Blinkit. The affected facilities are located in Bhiwandi, Ambernath and Khed in Pune district, areas that form part of the wider warehousing and distribution network serving urban consumers in the Mumbai region and Pune.
The department also directed two unlicensed establishments to shut down. Its investigation, as described in the complaint, found discrepancies in disposal documents, purchase bills and stock movement records. These records are central to establishing whether products marked for destruction were diverted back into commercial circulation.
The action highlights the role of disposal and sorting networks in the city’s increasingly complex food-delivery and quick-commerce system. Products sold through retail warehouses, grocery platforms and food-supply intermediaries pass through multiple operators before reaching consumers. The FDA’s complaint alleges that the diversion occurred through this chain rather than through a single retail outlet.
The companies and individuals named in the FIR face investigation, and the allegations have not been established in court. The FDA’s action does not by itself determine criminal liability. The case will now depend on the police investigation, examination of warehouse and disposal records, and the tracing of the seized stock.
The FDA’s press release did not state how many individual products or consumers may have been affected, nor did the supplied report specify the duration of the alleged resale activity. The immediate regulatory measures are the suspension of the five warehouse licences, closure directions for the two unlicensed establishments and the criminal investigation arising from the police complaint.
