Kolkata food safety drive: What it means for city’s hospitality economy before Durga Puja

With Ganesh Chaturthi and Durga Puja around the corner, Kolkata’s hospitality sector is facing an unprecedented regulatory shake-up. In a week-long inspection drive between September 1 and September 7, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), acting alongside the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), inspected more than 592 food joints, restaurants, and confectioneries across the city.

The result? Suspension notices were served to around 54 establishments, including famed sweet shops and heritage dining hubs like Roots near Exide crossing, Golden Dragon on Park Street, Chung Wah in Chandni Chowk, and New Aliah Hotel on Bentinck Street.

As news of the crackdown spread, shops were seen painting and cleaning their premises in a rush to comply. Under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, and the Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) Regulations, 2011, a license suspension is not a permanent shutdown.

It is a temporary regulatory intervention designed to force compliance, requiring businesses to immediately halt operations under that specific license while following a structured pathway to fix deviations. To ensure compliance, KMC Administrator and Municipal Commissioner Smita Pandey wrote to Police Commissioner Ajay Nand, providing a list of suspended outlets so law enforcement can ensure no establishment reopens without official clearance.

Failure to prominently display FSSAI licenses or Food Safety Display Boards (FSDB); missing yearly or half-yearly chemical and bacteriological water analysis reports; lack of mandatory FoSTaC training certificates; missing annual medical examination and inoculation records for food handlers; staff working without aprons, headgear, or gloves.

Flaking paint on walls and ceilings; non-absorbent floors; unlidded waste bins; working freezers in poor condition; absence of routine pest control records or equipment-cleaning logs were some other reasons. Use of unauthorized synthetic food coloring; preparing food outside the premises; uncovered cooked food; failure to segregate raw versus cooked or vegetarian versus non-vegetarian items.

Also, lack of purchase bills from approved vendors; missing FSSAI numbers on invoices; absence of records for Used Cooking Oil disposal; and uncovered windows lacking insect-proof nets were some of the other reasons for the issuance of suspension notices.

Civic authorities maintain that the drive is a necessary intervention before the peak festive rush. “It is not permanent closure,” said KMC Administrator Pandey. “If they (eateries) meet the criteria and rectify whatever has been asked, which I think they will… our team will visit, and if found fit for operation, they will get clearance.

However, we will continue this drive before Durga Puja also.” Civic officials reinforced that hygiene, storage, and vendor management form a single chain where any lapse triggers regulatory action. The suspension serves as a two-week window for owners to make structural repairs and revamp kitchen practices.

For business owners, however, the timing couldn’t have been worse. The phase leading up to Durga Puja is one of their highest revenue periods of the year, and while many have hung “renovation in progress” signs outside, frustration over the narrow timeframe is high.

Abhijeet Ghosh of The New Poshee Sweets near Dhapa expressed the industry’s anxiety, “With Monday being Ganesh Chaturthi, shopkeepers are running from pillar to post to gather documentation and questioning why the window was not provided earlier.” Another sweet shop owner voiced concern over selective enforcement, calling for standard, city-wide rules rather than random checks against a few ahead of the festivities.

“Out of scores of restaurants surveyed or inspected by the FSSAI… only 50 to 60 restaurants’ licenses have been suspended… they have also been asked to do the necessary rectification… and after this rectification, they will be allowed to reopen.

This measure by the government, temporarily, for a very short period, impacts the business, but in the long run, it is not going to impact the business because all these restaurants will again come into operation immediately after they rectify the defects,” Sudesh Poddar, President, Hotel and Restaurant Association of Eastern India, told The Indian Express.

Sweety Kumari is a seasoned journalist reporting from West Bengal for The Indian Express. With over a decade of experience in the media industry and eight years specifically with The Indian Express, she demonstrates considerable Expertise and Authority across a diverse range of critical beats.

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