Fungus on walls, rodents in storage: why FDA shut Mumbai’s oldest dairy

An FDA inspection at Parsi Dairy Farm in Marine Lines uncovered a set of violations serious enough to trigger an immediate license suspension: no raw milk reception dock, fungal growth spreading across the walls, raw materials kept directly on the floor instead of proper storage, and evidence of pest and rodent infestation. The establishment, running since 1916, is among Mumbai’s oldest dairy retailers.
Responding to the suspension, a spokesperson for Parsi Dairy Farm said, ‘The company is in the process of complying with certain procedural technical observations of the FSSAI.’ The move follows a pattern this month, with the FDA also suspending licenses at ice-cream parlour K Rustom and the Shalimar and Noor Mohammadi restaurants in recent weeks.
Parsi Dairy Farm’s case sits inside a much larger operation. Across Maharashtra, the FDA reports seizing 2,317 litres of milk, 30 litres of refined edible oil used for adulteration and 6,849.25kg of dairy products, together valued at more than Rs 45 lakh.
Two Mumbai vendors were separately caught adulterating milk pouches, resulting in the seizure and destruction of 822 pouches, or 558 litres, worth Rs 39,503; the Kandivali Crime Branch assisted, and an FIR now names vendors Krishna Lingampalli and Ravi Patikaka. In Govandi, Sufi Dairy was found storing 1,683 litres of loose pasteurized buffalo milk in steel tanks and plastic bags instead of sealed, tamper-evident packaging, leading to the seizure of stock worth over Rs 1 lakh.
A Mulund business, Agarwal Enterprises, lost 61.25kg of products including diced cheese blend, barfi and loose paneer, worth Rs 19,759, after officials found no batch numbers or expiry dates and suspected the paneer was actually a cheese analogue; those samples are now with a laboratory. Separately, the state’s drugs department seized Rs 10.94 lakh worth of unlabelled toilet soap from JK Soap Bazar in Jogeshwari for lacking mandatory manufacturing and safety details.
[Wikimedia Commons/by Sameertamoreraghunath]