Nine Telangana restaurants lose FSSAI licences over food safety violations

The Telangana Standards Authority for Food and Essential Drugs (TG SAFE) suspended the FSSAI licences of nine restaurants across Kamareddy and Nizamabad districts on 6 October 2026, ordering them to stop operations immediately after a coordinated enforcement drive found pest infestations, expired food stock, and multiple hygiene failures at each premises.

TG SAFE is Telangana's state-level food safety regulator, operating under the framework of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, which empowers designated officers to suspend or cancel FSSAI licences when an establishment poses an immediate risk to public health. The 6 October sweep involved 10 inspection teams visiting 20 restaurants across Medak, Kamareddy, and Nizamabad districts. Nine of those 20 lost their licences on the spot. The remaining 11 received either improvement notices (five establishments) or showcause notices (six establishments) that can lead to financial penalties.

The nine restaurants ordered to shut are Zyka Multi Cuisine Family Restaurant, The Malgudi Restaurant, Sri Vasudha Family Restaurant, New Udupi Krishna Bhavan, Lufyans Family Restaurant, and Taj Family Dhaba, all in Kamareddy district. In Nizamabad, the suspended establishments are Rejuvenate Hotel (also trading as Mr. Pottel Meat Mate), Hotel Nikhil Sai International, and Hotel Glamour.

According to TG SAFE's statement reported by The Hindu, inspectors found houseflies, cockroaches, rodents, and rat faeces at some of the premises. Other violations included stored expired food articles, spoiled vegetables, improperly labelled food containers, poor drainage, and inadequately cleaned utensils. Expired and contaminated items were discarded on the spot. Officials also lifted 21 food samples for adulteration testing, and those results have not been published yet.

What changed

This action is part of a pattern of intensified state-level enforcement that has accelerated since FSSAI tightened its Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) Regulations. Under those rules, a licence suspension is not a warning: it is an operational shutdown. The business cannot legally trade until the suspension is lifted, which requires a re-inspection confirming the violations have been corrected.

What is notable about this particular drive is the scale relative to the sample. Nine suspensions from 20 inspections is a 45 percent failure rate. That figure does not mean nearly half of all restaurants in these districts are unsafe, because enforcement teams typically prioritise premises flagged through complaints or prior inspections. Still, a 45 percent suspension rate in a single day across three districts signals that TG SAFE is moving beyond token checks.

The five establishments that received improvement notices face a follow-up inspection to verify compliance. The six that received showcause notices face penalty proceedings under the FSS Act, which can include fines up to Rs 2 lakh for certain categories of violation. TG SAFE has not released a timeline for either the re-inspections or the adulteration sample results.

What diners and food buyers should do

If you eat regularly at restaurants in Kamareddy or Nizamabad, the most direct step is to check whether your usual place holds a valid, current FSSAI licence. Every licensed food business is required to display its FSSAI licence number on the premises and on menus or packaging. You can verify a licence number on the FSSAI Food Business Operator portal. A suspended licence will not appear as active.

For the specific nine restaurants named above, the suspension means they cannot legally serve food until TG SAFE lifts the order. If you visit one of these premises and find it still operating, you can file a complaint directly through the FSSAI consumer complaint portal or through the TG SAFE helpline.

Beyond licence checks, the violations found here point to conditions that are visible to a careful diner: flies around food prep areas, strong odours from drainage, visibly dirty utensils, and unlabelled containers. None of these require a laboratory to detect. The FSS Act gives consumers the right to ask to see a restaurant's licence before ordering, though in practice few do.

For home cooks and buyers, the adulteration angle is worth watching. TG SAFE lifted 21 samples for testing, and the results will determine whether any of the food sold at these establishments contained undeclared substances or substandard ingredients. FSSAI publishes adulteration test results through its Food Safety Compliance System, though there is often a lag of several weeks between sampling and publication.

The broader takeaway for anyone eating out in Telangana's smaller cities and district towns is that FSSAI licence display is a minimum baseline, not a guarantee of current compliance. A licence issued two years ago does not reflect whether a kitchen has maintained standards since. Periodic enforcement drives like this one are the primary mechanism for catching drift, and TG SAFE's 6 October action shows that drift can be severe.