Overview
- The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration issued a gazette order dated July 30 that bans manufacture, storage, transport, sale and use of analogue (non‑dairy) paneer across the state for one year.
- The ban follows a year‑long FDA surveillance drive that tested 308 paneer samples between April 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026 and found 109 failures, including 79 substandard and 30 unsafe samples.
- The order explicitly bars hotels, restaurants, caterers and cloud kitchens from using analogue paneer after inspections showed the product was often served as real paneer without labels or invoices.
- Authorities have authorised surprise raids, seizures and prosecution under the Food Safety and Standards Act with penalties ranging from fines and prison terms up to life sentences in the rare event consumption causes death.
- The move deepens a patchwork of state actions with Gujarat and Chhattisgarh issuing similar curbs and leaves a policy gap because the national regulator, FSSAI, permits labelled analogue products, raising the prospect of new national standards and supply pressures on small food businesses.