Tukaram Mundhe is an Indian bureaucrat on a mission. As a state food safety commissioner, the 51-year-old has raided food businesses in the country's commercial capital Mumbai in an unprecedented crackdown on poor hygiene and unsafe food that has captivated the public nationwide. Mundhe has led the suspension of food permits of four pizza outlets in recent weeks, and has also targeted cricket clubs, hotels and well-known restaurants in over 3,000 raids since he took over as Maharashtra's food safety chief in May.
When a Mumbai judge accused Mundhe of selective aggression towards private outlets and asked if court canteens were checked, his teams conducted inspections there within hours, shutting some of them which operated without licences. 'Those who try to not comply, they will face what is expected from the regulator,' Mundhe said in an interview. 'You are dealing with the lives of people.'
Mundhe has won widespread public admiration across India because he has tapped into deep public frustration. Even though foreign chains are fast expanding, it is local eateries, roadside kiosks and small restaurants - long dogged by concerns over hygiene - that remain hugely popular. Each year since 2020, Indian food inspectors have checked more than 100,000 food samples and found roughly 20% to be unsafe, substandard or lacking proper labels, government data shows. Nearly 8,000 food business licences have been cancelled in the last three years.
'Everyone has tried to normalise this for years by saying it happens in India. It's basically bottled-up anger,' said Ankur Bisen, a partner at consumer consulting firm The Knowledge Company. 'I have never seen anyone like Mundhe. It's giving people hope.'
Mundhe, who is bespectacled and sports a chevron moustache, has an unconventional operating style. He has featured in TV interviews declaring nobody dare bribe him, and that he is not afraid of administrative action despite being transferred numerous times in his 21-year career as an officer of the highly regarded Indian Administrative Service. 'I get transferred every year,' he said in a 2018 interview.
Now, his food safety team's actions go viral daily - raids lead to detailed public statements and graphic images that show interiors of eateries and grocery warehouses with stained walls, crawling cockroaches and rats, and even expired food.