Mumbai: Tukaram Mundhe, the 2005-batch IAS officer currently serving as Commissioner of Maharashtra’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has become one of the state’s most talked-about officials after launching an aggressive drive against food safety violations.
Appointed to the FDA post on May 26, Mundhe and his team have carried out more than 3,000 inspections in just two months and suspended the licences of nearly 165 establishments. His inspections have targeted a wide range of places, from restaurants and clubs to quick-commerce warehouses, school canteens and government facilities.
Mundhe says the objective is straightforward: protecting public health. In an Independence Day address, he linked safe food and medicines to the larger goal of building a healthy population. His approach has been to treat food safety rules as something that must be actively enforced rather than merely followed on paper.
His recent actions have included checks for food adulteration, hygiene violations and licensing problems. The campaign has attracted public attention partly because some of the establishments being inspected are well-known names. Mundhe has also faced criticism over the scale and manner of some enforcement actions, including a dispute involving an Amazon Retail India warehouse. The Bombay High Court questioned whether the FDA should have issued an improvement notice before suspending the licence. Mundhe has maintained that the law permits immediate action where food poses a potential health risk.
His reputation for taking on difficult issues, however, goes back much further than his current food-safety posting. Over a 21-year career, Mundhe has faced 25 transfers, often becoming known for taking firm positions and enforcing rules even when they prove unpopular.
His career began in a drought-prone farming family in Beed district. Mundhe has spoken about his childhood as a farmer and recalled selling onions at extremely low prices. Those experiences, he says, shaped his understanding of how government decisions affect ordinary people.
As an assistant collector in Deglur, Nanded, he took action against the sand mafia and received threats. Later, as Solapur district collector, he led an extensive water-conservation programme covering around 13,000 hectares in five months. The work helped earn him recognition as the state’s “waterman”.
His style has often produced both supporters and critics. In 2022, while serving as commissioner of family welfare under the National Health Mission, he ordered midnight inspections at primary health centres and acted against doctors accused of running private clinics during government working hours. He was transferred within months.
Mundhe says he does not see transfers as a reason to compromise. His philosophy is built around identifying gaps in the system and fixing them rather than waiting for someone else to act.
That approach has now moved to Maharashtra’s food sector. He says he does not expect his tenure to last forever and is more interested in creating a lasting culture of food safety.
For now, his message to consumers and businesses is simple: food safety is not a luxury, and rules are meant to be followed. With thousands of inspections already completed, Maharashtra’s food regulator has clearly entered a more assertive phase under Mundhe’s leadership.
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