PIL In Bombay High Court Alleges Expired Bread Being Sold In Markets, Says 'Best Before' Label Meaningless Without Manufacturing Date

A PIL has been filed in the Bombay High Court alleging sale of stale, unhygienic and expired bread and other bakery items to the public in general and in particular to the residents of slum areas of Mumbai.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice S. V. Gangapurwala and Justice Santosh Chapalgaonkar on Thursday posted the matter for hearing on January 18, 2023.

The petitioner, who is a practicing advocate, has impleaded the central and state government, as well as several bread manufacturers such as Britannia, Monginis etc. as respondents.

The PIL seeks directions to the manufacturers to compulsorily print the manufacturing date on the packets of bread, cookies, pavs and other bakery items.

According to the petition, the petitioner in June 2022 came to know that stale breads, past their expiry date, are being sold in slum localities such as Santosh Nagar, Kurar village, Malad (East) etc. He visited the areas and found that two vendors purchase such breads and sell them at cheaper rates, delivering them at night only.

When the petitioner visited the office of the bread manufacturer, he was informed that they sell such breads to their vendors for cattle feed and all manufacturers adopt the same method in selling the expired and market-returned breads.

According to the petition, the petitioner purchased four packets of bread manufactured by the respondent companies. The use by date was written in the packets but no manufacturing and packaging date was provided.

According to the petition, the shopkeepers told the petitioner that after the expiry of use by date, they return the bread packets to the distributors. When the petitioner opened the wrappers, the bread smelled bad and was hard to chew, indicating that the food was stale.

Thereafter, he purchased other breads from the respondent companies from time to time and found the above discrepancies, the petition states.

The petition states that the samples collected by the petitioner of the respondents' products mention things like 'best before 6 months' etc. This label makes no sense without the manufacturing date and packaging date, the petition states.

According to the petition, the respondent companies are directly or indirectly cheating the public and the state and central governments are not taking coercive action against the manufacturers. There is no system to prevent supply of stale and expired bread and other bakery products in poor localities, slum areas, zopadpatti etc., the petition states.

According to the petition, the breads, biscuits and other bakery products which are past the expiry date or a market returns are being sold in various including slum areas, zopadpatti etc.

The petition states that more than one crore people in Mumbai including small children are eating bread, pavs, bun pavs, cream pavs, fruity pavs etc. manufactured by the respondent companies, who are "playing mischief" with the health of the public.

The bakery products past expiry date as well as market returned products are being fed to animals such as cows, buffaloes, cats, and dogs which is illegal and impermissible in law, the petition submits.

The petition further states that most of the bakery products are kept open which make them unhygienic and inedible.

The respondent companies are making good income from jeopardizing the health and lives of poor people in the slum and zopadpatti areas, the petition claims.

The petition seeks directions to the state and central government to establish a vigilance department to check manufacturing standard label, and date of manufacturing, packaging, distribution, expiry on the packets of all the manufacturers of bread.

The petition seeks a prohibition on the bread manufacturers from producing and distributing bread and other bakery products in the market without mentioning manufacturing standard labels and date of manufacturing, packaging, distribution, and expiry.

The petition seeks a prohibition on the state and central government from granting permission/licence and allowing the bread manufacturers from distributing bread and other bakery products without mentioning manufacturing standard label and date of manufacturing, packaging, distribution, and expiry.

The petition further prays that the court form a committee presided by a retired HC Judge to submit a report giving suggestions to implement the regulations in order to prevent the illegality and malpractice adopted by the bread companies.

Further, the petition seeks that a committee having at least seven members including the top most officials of the food safety department be formed under the supervision of a High Court Judge for passing proper guidelines in the matter.

Case Title – Kameshwar Ramnaresh Tiwari v. Union of India & Ors.