TG SAFE and police shut five unlicensed Hyderabad sweet shops, suspended five more licences, and destroyed 3,546.5 kg of contaminated stock worth Rs 16.86 lakh on 29 October 2026.
Five sweet shops in Hyderabad were closed on 29 October 2026 for operating without valid FSSAI licences under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, after thirteen joint inspection teams from TG SAFE (Telangana Standards Authority for Food and Essential Drugs) swept 16 manufacturing and retail units across the city's CURE region.
The sweep covered establishments from Champapet to Charminar. Teams comprised food safety officers and police personnel, a pairing that signals the state is treating unlicensed food production as more than a paperwork lapse. In total, 3,546.5 kg of food articles worth Rs 16.86 lakh were seized and discarded. Twenty-two samples were collected for adulteration testing, though TG SAFE has not yet released the lab results publicly.
What the inspectors found
The five units shut outright were Balaji Sweets in Champapet, Mamatha Sweet House in Secunderabad, SK Foods in Kattedan, Hameedi Confectionaries at MJ Market, and Annapurna Caterers at Chudi Bazaar. All five were operating without a current FSSAI licence, which under the FSS Act is a criminal offence carrying penalties up to imprisonment.
Beyond the licence issue, inspectors documented cockroach, housefly, and rodent infestation; expired and mislabelled products; clogged drains; unclean equipment; and food handlers working without gloves or head covers. One detail stands out: sweets and snacks were being covered with newspaper, a practice that transfers ink chemicals and bacteria directly onto food.
Five other establishments had their FSSAI licences suspended and were told to stop operations immediately. The most striking case is G Pulla Reddy Sweets at Sanathnagar, a name many Hyderabad residents associate with premium mithai. Officials seized 3,133 kg of food articles worth Rs 15.03 lakh from that single outlet, accounting for the bulk of the total haul. Agra Mithai Ghar at Charminar was also among the five suspended.
Seven establishments received show-cause notices, and Sri Shagun Mithai Vatika in Himayath Nagar was issued an improvement notice, the lightest intervention in the enforcement toolkit.
Why this matters for anyone buying sweets in Hyderabad
The timing is not incidental. Inspections of this scale in Hyderabad typically intensify around the Diwali and wedding season, when sweet shops run at maximum production capacity and corners get cut. Adulteration risks during this window include synthetic colours, substandard khoya (mawa), and rancid fats used in fried snacks.
The FSSAI licence requirement exists precisely to create a paper trail: a licensed unit must declare its ingredients, storage conditions, and production volumes. When a shop operates without one, there is no regulatory record of what goes into the product. Consumers buying from unlicensed outlets have no recourse if they fall ill, because the unit does not officially exist in the food safety system.
The suspension of G Pulla Reddy Sweets deserves particular attention. The brand has a long retail presence across Hyderabad and is often treated as a trusted name. A licence suspension does not automatically mean the food was adulterated; TG SAFE has not stated the specific grounds for that suspension beyond the broader sweep findings. But the seizure of over three tonnes of stock from one outlet suggests inspectors found something beyond a minor paperwork gap. Consumers should wait for the adulteration test results before drawing conclusions, and those results have not been published as of this writing.
What buyers should do right now
Check for the FSSAI licence number before buying from any sweet shop, whether a standalone unit or a large chain. Every licensed food business in India must display its 14-digit FSSAI licence number on its signage and packaging. If you cannot find it, ask. A shop that cannot produce it is operating outside the law.
For packaged sweets, the FSSAI number must appear on the label along with the manufacturing date, best-before date, and a full ingredient list. Sweets sold loose, including most traditional mithai, carry higher risk because there is no label to check. In that case, the physical condition of the shop is your only signal: clean surfaces, covered display cases, gloved staff, and no visible pest activity are the minimum you should expect.
If you bought sweets from any of the five shuttered outlets or the five suspended ones in the days before this sweep, and you notice symptoms of foodborne illness (nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea within 6 to 48 hours of eating), report to the nearest government hospital and file a complaint at fssai.gov.in or through the Food Safety Connect app.
TG SAFE has not announced whether the 22 adulteration samples will be made public or when. That information gap matters. A sweep that destroys stock and shuts shops but does not publish test results leaves consumers unable to assess the actual health risk. Clean Label Guide will update this piece when those results are released.