Outlook Magazine - One Tukaram is Not Enough - 12 October 2026 Issue

Your food may not be safe. The system knows it. Yet the food chain keeps moving. From five-star kitchens to roadside dhabas, food passes through a chain where contamination, adulteration and poor hygiene can enter at every stage, with consequences ranging from diarrhoea and jaundice to typhoid and hepatitis. Into this maze has stepped Tukaram Mundhe. Since taking charge as Maharashtra’s Food and Drug Administration commissioner in May, Mundhe has overseen more than 12,000 inspections and raids, cancelled or suspended around 600 licences and sealed more than 300 eateries. But raids cannot fix a broken system. India has the laws, standards and regulators. Yet violations persist, enforcement remains uneven and corruption finds its way through the gaps. Mundhe can keep cracking the whip. But can one man change the system? In this issue, Outlook examines India’s food-safety maze, where it fails and why one Tukaram is not enough.