India food probe names Reliance, Blinkit

The Express Tribune reported, citing Reuters' review of case documents, that India's food safety authority has named officials from Reliance's retail and consumer units and from Eternal's Blinkit and Hyperpure units in a probe into expired products allegedly fed back into the supply chain. Blinkit chief executive Albinder Dhindsa is among those named. Neither Reliance nor Blinkit had responded to Reuters' request for comment at the time of reporting.

The inquiry sits within a wider food safety crackdown in Maharashtra, where the state Food and Drug Administration under chief Tukaram Mundhe has shut popular eateries and Domino's and Pizza Hut outlets over poor hygiene and suspended a McDonald's permit. According to the case file, officials visited Reliance Retail, Reliance Consumer and Zomato Hyperpure warehouses, and companies were unable to show verifiable evidence that contractors had actually disposed of expired stock. One document alleged that disposal agencies were not destroying the stock at all.

The case documents describe a chain running from company warehouses to disposal contractors, then unlicensed sorting yards, brokers, retailers and consumers. Maharashtra's FDA suspended licences of five establishments on Thursday, three Reliance and two Eternal entities. Mundhe described diverting expired, damaged or rejected food back to shoppers as a grave matter that requires close examination.