Kolkata takes its food seriously — perhaps more seriously than any other Indian city. So when the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) suspended around 40 restaurants, sweet shops and eateries following a week-long food safety drive, it landed like a stone in still water. The names on the list made it even harder to ignore: Nizam's, the house that arguably invented the kathi roll; Karim's on Ripon Street; Shimla Biryani; and an Arsalan outlet in Nagerbazar — all institutions with loyal followings built over decades.
What inspectors found when they went behind the scenes
The drive was part of West Bengal's Special Food Safety Week, with civic and food safety officials moving through kitchens, storage areas, ingredient stocks and licence documents — the parts of a restaurant operation that most diners never see.
What they found was sobering. Violations included expired ingredients, unhygienic kitchen conditions, poor food storage practices, pest-related concerns, repeated reuse of cooking oil, and in some cases, rotten food. Several sweet shops — particularly striking given that Bengali sweets are woven into the cultural fabric of the state — were flagged for needing significant hygiene improvements. Inspectors also discovered establishments operating with retail licences but lacking the manufacturing licences required by law.
In total, KMC officials discarded 1,224 kg of food deemed unfit. Markets including Hogg Market, Maniktala, Patipukur fish market and Tangra were all part of the sweep, with meat and seafood making up a large share of the discarded stock.
Beyond the 40 suspensions, roughly 89 establishments received show-cause or refrain notices, and 112 were issued notices under Section 38 of the Food Safety and Standards Act.
Can these places reopen — and when?
The suspensions are not necessarily permanent. Affected establishments have been asked to address the specific violations found during inspections and meet hygiene and safety standards before applying to reopen. KMC has not announced a fixed deadline, which means some could potentially be back in business before Durga Puja in October — one of the busiest and most food-intensive periods in Kolkata's calendar.
KMC commissioner Smita Pandey confirmed the drive covered a broad cross-section of the city's food economy, including hotels, clubs, restaurants, markets and bazaars, and emphasised that the condition of several sweet shops was a particular concern given their cultural significance.
Why this matters for a food audience in India
This isn't a Kolkata-only story. Across West Bengal during just the first two days of Special Food Safety Week, officials inspected 1,730 food business operators and found major irregularities at 1,525 of them — that's nearly 88 per cent. Food sales were prohibited at 11 establishments, five licences were suspended or cancelled, and 901 food samples were sent for laboratory testing.
For anyone who loves eating out — in Kolkata or anywhere else — the drive is a useful reminder that food safety lives in the details that are invisible from the dining room: how ingredients are stored, how oil is managed, whether pests have been kept out, and whether the licences on the wall actually match what's happening in the kitchen. A dish can look and taste perfectly fine and still have a troubled story behind it.
The hope, of course, is that drives like this push standards upward permanently — not just in the weeks before an inspection, but every single day that a kitchen is open.