Hyderabad: Telangana recorded not a single penalty or conviction for food safety violations in 2025-26, even as 398 of the 3,576 samples tested in the state, 11.1 percent, failed quality checks, according to data placed before the Lok Sabha by the Union Health Ministry on August 7.
The state’s enforcement record trails far behind its neighbours. Tamil Nadu tested over 12 times as many samples and still secured 1,359 penalties and 857 convictions. Kerala recorded 1,026 penalties and 330 convictions from 16,746 samples. Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka also posted penalties and convictions in the hundreds despite comparable testing volumes. Telangana’s own testing volume was among the lowest of major states, behind even Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
A separate five-year parliamentary reply tabled on July 24 showed the same pattern. Telangana tested 20,965 samples between 2021-22 and 2025-26, found 2,942 non-conforming, decided 942 with penalty, but recorded zero criminal convictions through the entire period, placing it alongside West Bengal, Jharkhand, Goa, Assam, Bihar and Puducherry.
According to a TOI report, a backlog of over 100 cases is pending before district additional collectors in Hyderabad and Rangareddy alone, along with a shortage of food safety officers; only 44 of 81 sanctioned posts are filled, against 100 percent occupancy in Karnataka and Kerala.
The parliamentary data comes even as Telangana has stepped up visible enforcement activity in recent weeks.
The Telangana Food Safety Department told the press it carried out 4,366 inspections and collected over 3,300 samples from restaurants, cafes and sweet shops since March, but has described its approach as “corrective rather than punitive” in most cases, favouring improvement notices over adjudication or prosecution except for repeat or serious offenders- a stance that helps explain the state’s zero-conviction record.
Recent raids have turned up violations ranging from misbranded curd and expired reagents at two Sangareddy dairy units, whose licences were suspended in early July, to rough bran marked “not meant for human consumption” being used to make soya chunks at a Karimnagar unit, to broken eggs and food stored beside open drains at a Saroornagar eatery in late July.
Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, meanwhile, directed officials on July 18 to draft a stringent new law against food adulteration and spurious medicines, citing rising cases of people falling ill from contaminated vegetables, fruit and milk. Days later, Telangana DGP CV Anand announced a dedicated 100-member police wing to crack down on adulteration, linking the move to a rise in cancer cases in the state.
This post was last modified on August 10, 2026 10:56 am