The Telangana Food Safety Department conducted a two-day nationwide inspection of warehouses operated by major e-commerce platforms, uncovering expired products, misbranded items and unhygienic storage practices across Telangana.
The special drive, which took place on November 25 and 26, was for devices connected to platforms that include Zepto, Reliance JioMart, BlinkIt, Big Basket, Zomato, Swiggy, Flipkart, Amazon and other local warehouse units.
According to data collected by the Food Safety Commissioner, officials inspected 75 warehouses in 33 districts, including the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) region. During the drive, the inspection teams collected 98 control samples and 124 control samples from the warehouses. Warehouses within GHMC limits accounted for the highest number of visits where 25 units were inspected and 83 samples were collected, including 39 samples for inspection and 44 samples for surveillance.
Telangana Food Safety Commissioner Sangeetha Satyanarayana said the exercise was taken up to assess the way e-commerce supply chains now handle the bulk of packaged food.
As a result of the inspections, 1,903 pieces of food with expired or incorrectly labeled food and items with misleading labels were seized. Officials also threw away 76 kg of expired or rotten goods, including spoiled vegetables and expired packaged food.
The inspection also resulted in issuing 32 improvement notices to warehouse operators, 19 of which represented only GHMC.
“The objective of this event was to assess compliance with food safety norms in the expanding online grocery and express delivery ecosystem. As more consumers rely on e-commerce platforms for everyday groceries, there is a need for frequent inspections to ensure that warehouses maintain proper storage conditions and prevent expired or unsafe goods from entering households,” added Ms. Satyanarayana.
Published – 28 Nov 2025 01:25 IST
