How a food inspector in India became an unlikely social media celebrity

Since May, a sweeping food safety campaign has been under way in Mumbai and across the Indian state of Maharashtra, led by 51-year-old civil servant Tukaram Mundhe. He took charge of the state's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May and has since overseen thousands of inspections of restaurants, cafes and other food businesses.

Hundreds of photos and videos from these inspections have gone viral online, including images from a members-only club in Mumbai showing cockroaches, spider webs and rotting vegetables. The visibility has turned Mundhe into an unusually recognisable civil servant, with more than 3.8 million followers on Instagram.

By the end of July, his department had carried out more than 3,100 inspections, suspended around 300 licences and issued over 1,000 improvement notices. A new complaints portal received more than 16,000 submissions in its first three months. Data presented to India's parliament showed that nearly one in five food samples tested nationwide in 2025 and 2026 failed to meet standards.

Mundhe says his actions serve the public interest and that food safety rules must apply regardless of a business's size or influence. His department has also sent notices to Bollywood celebrities over advertisements suspected of indirectly promoting restricted products.

However, restaurant associations allege he has bypassed statutory procedures, and courts have criticised some of his actions as heavy-handed. In August, the Bombay High Court ordered his department to pay compensation to a sweets shop whose licence remained suspended even after a reinspection found it nearly fully compliant. The court called the regulator's intentions praiseworthy but said it had gone too far, and questioned whether government establishments faced the same scrutiny as private businesses.

Mundhe maintains that businesses would face no action if they complied with existing rules, and says the goal is not to shut businesses down but to ensure food safety. His campaign has expanded to schools, requiring canteens to obtain proper licences and banning the sale of food high in fat, sugar or salt within 50 metres of school grounds. Observers note the heightened awareness his campaign has generated may not outlast his eventual transfer to another post.