- Tuesday, February 25, 2025
The inspections pose a challenge for global brands, particularly following recent inflationary pressures that have impacted the consumption of burgers and pizzas.
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE Indian state of Maharashtra will carry out inspections at outlets of global fast-food brands to see whether they use cheese alternatives in products wrongly promoted as containing the real variety, a top official said, adding that the move expands the scope of scrutiny beyond the recent crackdown on McDonald’s.
The inspections pose a challenge for global brands, particularly following recent inflationary pressures that have impacted the consumption of burgers and pizzas, which are already considered expensive for many Indian consumers. In response, the firms have introduced discounted offerings to mitigate the effects of reduced consumption.
Westlife Foodworld, McDonald’s largest franchisee in India, has been asserting the authenticity of its “real cheese” following media reports indicating that state authorities discovered the use of cheese analogues made from vegetable oil in some products last year.
Read: As tomatoes become pricey, McDonald’s drops them from India items; cites quality concerns
While disputing the findings, the McDonald’s franchisee took action by removing the term “cheese” from the names of numerous burgers and nuggets sold statewide in December, as evidenced by letters reviewed by Reuters.
It renamed a “corn and cheese burger” as an “American vegetarian burger”, for example.
Read: Fast food consumption linked to liver disease: Study
Inspectors of the state’s Food and Drug Administration will now pay visit to all McDonald’s outlets, as well as those of other major brands, to look for similar violations of display and labelling rules, its chief, Abhimanyu Kale, told Reuters.
“We are planning to check all outlets of McDonald’s,” he was quoted as saying.
“We will also take action on other well-known and frequently visited global fast-food chain outlets,” he added, but did not identify the brands being targeted.
Shares of Westlife plunged as much as 6.7 per cent following the Reuters report.
A senior official of the state government said on the condition of anonymity that inspectors would visit Indian franchisee outlets of brands such as Domino’s, Burger King, Pizza Hut and KFC.
State authorities in India possess the authority to suspend the licenses of restaurants found to have violated food and safety regulations in a manner that misleads consumers.
Maharashtra, India’s second most populous state and home to the financial capital Mumbai, which has about 100 McDonald’s outlets, and many other urban cities, is a key market for global fast-food brands.
In the case of McDonald’s, state food inspectors suspended the licence of one outlet east of Mumbai in November for allegedly using analogues in products promoted as containing cheese. The suspension was later revoked on appeal by Westlife, the franchisee.
