Mumbai: Indian authorities have raided an illegal warehouse in Navi Mumbai that erased expiry dates and altered nutritional data on original products from PepsiCo, Nestle, Coca-Cola, and Hindustan Unilever to export them abroad.
Food safety officers conducted a six-day investigation and seized goods worth nearly $80,000. Officers discovered chemical solvents used to wipe manufacturers’ original expiry dates, printing machines to apply fake replacements, and falsified ingredient labels for products including Lay’s chips, Kurkure, and Maggi noodles. Maharashtra government has intensified its food safety drive under Food and Drug Administration (FDA) head Tukaram Mundhe. “I am absolutely shocked by the scale. It is like organized activity,” Mundhe told Reuters Tuesday regarding the illicit warehouse run by Sadhana Enterprises.
The firm’s owner claimed they altered packaging on behalf of 19 exporters. Officials noted most products were expired or near expiry. “Harmful food products are being exported for sale, thereby defrauding customers,” the police document stated. While the target countries remain unclear, stock was strictly for export. At least one reprinted label on a PepsiCo packet was printed in English and French.
Officials seized nearly 5,000 cartons, including PepsiCo’s Lay’s, Nestle’s Maggi, Unilever’s Knorr soups, and Coca-Cola’s Thums Up cans. A chemical solvent was used to scratch out original dates. Workers then used a computer-linked printing machine to print new manufacturing and expiry information directly onto packaging and cans. FDA teams even found packs stamped with a future manufacturing date of October 2, 2026. Fake nutritional stickers were also pasted over original packaging to align with foreign regulations. One Maggi sample had a false nutrition label pasted over the pack to render it “export-ready.”
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