West Bengal food-safety drive seizes 540kg of spoiled meat, chicken and prawns before Durga Puja

West Bengal food-safety authorities intensified pre-festival inspections across Kolkata and other districts, seizing spoiled meat and seafood, issuing restaurant notices and acting on hygiene, storage and adulteration violations.

— Source publishedThu, 3 Sept, 2026, 14:41 IST·First seen Thu, 3 Sept, 2026, 14:56 IST·Source Business Today · Latest

What happened

West Bengal food safety authorities · West Bengal authorities intensified food-safety inspections before Durga Puja, seizing rotten meat and stale poultry and

Key facts

  • 40 kg of rotten chicken and mutton recovered in Baduria
  • 500 kg of stale raw chicken and prawns seized in Tangra
  • 20 hotels inspected in Digha
  • 12 restaurants issued notices in Digha
  • Statewide food safety week from September 1 to 8

Why this matters

Prioritize targets and partners with auditable sourcing, cold-chain infrastructure and regulatory-compliance capabilities, as food-safety diligence becomes more material in festive-market expansion.

What to watch

  • Number of additional seizures, closure orders, fines and restaurant notices issued through the Durga Puja period.
  • Whether inspections extend to organized food courts, supermarket fresh counters, caterers, cloud kitchens and wholesale cold-storage operators.
  • State food-safety department directives on mandatory testing, licensing, labeling, cold-chain standards or festival-specific compliance checks.
  • Reports of supply interruptions or wholesale price increases for poultry, meat, fish and prawns in Kolkata and surrounding districts.
  • Social-media amplification of named outlets or brands implicated in food-safety violations.
  • Audit cold-chain logs, expiry controls, supplier licenses, water quality and pest-control records across West Bengal outlets before festival demand peaks.
  • Temporarily tighten receiving standards for meat, chicken and seafood, including temperature checks, batch-level traceability and rapid rejection protocols.
  • Prepare outlet-level inspection response packs with licenses, lab reports, storage records, cleaning schedules and escalation contacts.
  • Increase procurement from approved, auditable suppliers and maintain backup sources for seafood and poultry.
  • Use visible in-store hygiene and freshness messaging to protect consumer trust without making unsubstantiated safety claims.