Mumbai Food Export Scandal Exposes Fake Labels on PepsiCo, Nestle, and Unilever Products

Indian authorities have raided an operation in Mumbai that faked expiry dates and nutritional information on popular food export products manufactured by PepsiCo, Nestle, Coca-Cola, and Unilever. The raid, conducted over six days, uncovered a warehouse in Navi Mumbai containing nearly 5,000 cartons of consumer goods worth around $80,000.

The investigation revealed that the fake expiry dates and labels were applied using chemicals and machines, with workers entering the new information on computer screens before printing the labels. The affected products included Lay's potato chips, Maggi noodles, Knorr Mushroom Soup, Hellmann's Mayonnaise, Thums Up, and Limca cans.

Tukaram Mundhe, head of the Maharashtra state Food and Drug Administration, said he was shocked by the scale of the operation and called for supply chain accountability. Mundhe noted that the warehouse was run on behalf of 19 little-known exporters, with the products intended for export to foreign countries.