Mumbai’s 109-year-old Parsi Dairy Farm loses its license: here’s why

Parsi Dairy Farm has stood at Marine Lines since 1916, serving Mumbai milk, ghee, curd and sweets through more than a century of the city’s growth. That run hit a wall this week when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) suspended the outlet’s license following an inspection that turned up a list of hygiene failures: no dedicated raw milk reception dock, fungal growth on the walls, raw materials stored directly on the floor, and signs of pest and rodent activity.
A spokesperson for Parsi Dairy Farm told TOI, ‘The company is in the process of complying with certain procedural technical observations of the FSSAI.’ The suspension makes Parsi Dairy Farm the latest in a string of long-standing Mumbai food establishments to be pulled up by regulators, following recent license suspensions at ice-cream parlour K Rustom and the Shalimar and Noor Mohammadi restaurants.
The action is part of a wider FDA campaign against substandard dairy products across Maharashtra. Officials say they have seized 2,317 litres of milk, 30 litres of refined edible oil used for adulteration, and 6,849.25kg of dairy products statewide, with a combined value exceeding Rs 45 lakh.
In Mumbai itself, two vendors were caught tampering with milk pouches; 822 pouches amounting to 558 litres, worth Rs 39,503, were seized and destroyed. The Kandivali Crime Branch assisted the operation, and an FIR was registered against vendors Krishna Lingampalli and Ravi Patikaka. In Govandi, Sufi Dairy was found storing 1,683 litres of loose pasteurized buffalo milk in steel tanks and plastic bags rather than the sealed packaging the law requires; the stock, valued above Rs 1 lakh, was seized and destroyed.
In Mulund, Agarwal Enterprises had 61.25kg of food items, including diced cheese blend, barfi and loose paneer worth Rs 19,759, seized over missing batch numbers and expiry dates, with officials also suspecting the ‘paneer’ was actually a cheese analogue; samples have been sent for lab analysis. The FDA said residents can now report violations directly through an AI-based grievance portal at complaints.mahafda.in.
[Wikimedia Commons/by Sameertamoreraghunath]