Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has sharply increased its sample collection and testing activity in the three months since Tukaram Mundhe took charge as FDA commissioner, with the department reporting a 300% increase in its monthly sample-collection rate compared with 2025-26.
Between June and August 2026, the FDA collected 37,604 samples, including 34,584 food samples and 3,020 drug and cosmetics samples. It tested 32,604 samples during the period, of which 15,268 were found not to meet prescribed standards.
advertisement
The FDA said on Thursday that its monthly rate of collecting samples increased threefold and its testing rate increased fourfold compared with the previous year. Mundhe launched a special inspection drive across Maharashtra after taking charge in May.
During the three-month period, the FDA completed testing of 30,492 food samples and 2,112 drug and cosmetics samples. It found 15,160 food samples and 108 drug and cosmetics samples to be “not of standard quality”.
Among the drug and cosmetics samples tested, 2,004 met standard quality requirements. The FDA found eight samples to be spurious, 93 to be “not of standard quality” and seven to have improper labelling.
The FDA recorded an average 340% rise in the number of food samples collected for testing compared with 2025-26, while the number of food samples tested increased by 435%. For drugs and cosmetics, sample collection increased by an average 175%, while testing increased by 165%.
During the entire 2025-26 financial year, the FDA collected 47,600 food, drug and cosmetics samples for testing and completed testing of 33,119 samples. It collected an average of 3,967 samples and tested 2,760 samples every month during that period.
In comparison, between June and August 2026, the FDA collected an average of 12,534 samples and completed testing of 10,868 samples a month.
The department operates three drug-testing laboratories and three food-testing laboratories in Mumbai, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Nagpur. It also sends food samples to the State Public Health Laboratory in Pune.
– Ends
With PTI inputs
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
