If Golpark is your go-to stretch for an evening plate of momos or a box of sweets on the way home, this one concerns you. After a break of roughly a week, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation restarted its food safety inspections on Thursday 17 September, and it chose the Golpark and Gariahat belt in south Kolkata as the first stop. The civic body is now working zone by zone rather than picking scattered addresses, which means every neighbourhood with a dense cluster of eateries can expect a visit in the coming days. Thursday’s round did not go well for several well-known names, with inspectors throwing out stale prawns, undated meat and processed kebabs with visible fungus. Here is what happened, what the earlier drive found, and what you can actually do as a customer.
What Happened at Golpark on Thursday
The inspection team began the day at a prominent sweet shop in the area. According to civic sources, the officers found a number of hygiene lapses in the section where sweets and savouries are prepared, including ingredients that were not fit for consumption and, in one packet of namkeen, a feather. The spices in question were discarded on the spot and the shop was told to clean up its preparation area and keep it that way.
From there the team moved to a handful of restaurants that most south Kolkata diners would recognise. The pattern was uncomfortably familiar from the first round of raids earlier this month: meat stored without any date marking and kitchens in a poor state of cleanliness. Inspectors discarded sausages, jaggery and a packet of processed kebabs that had fungus growing on it. At a popular momo outlet nearby, officers found prawns and meat that were both undated and visibly stale, along with pre-made momos that had gone off. All of it was thrown away.
Why Golpark first? The stretch from Golpark round the corner into Gariahat and along Southern Avenue is one of the busiest food corridors in the city, packed with sweet shops, cafes, Chinese and Tibetan eateries and roll counters that draw crowds from Ballygunge, Dhakuria and Jadavpur. If the zone-wise plan is meant to send a message, this was a logical place to start.
The Bigger Picture: What the First Drive Found
This is the second phase of a campaign that began in the first week of September, when the KMC and the state Health Department ran a week-long series of joint inspections across the city. Those teams covered mall food courts, standalone restaurants, fish markets, the wholesale hub at Posta Bazar and the chhana (cottage cheese) trade at Bowbazar. The numbers from that week explain why the civic body has come back for more:
- 1,224 kg of food was discarded as unfit for consumption.
- 161 samples were collected for laboratory testing.
- FSSAI licences of 54 establishments were suspended, with two weeks given to fix the problems and apply for reinstatement.
- Refrain notices were issued to 89 outlets, warning them to correct specific violations.
- Around 10 of the suspended establishments are understood to be close to reopening after compliance checks.
Sweet shops came in for particular criticism in that round, with inspectors reporting that hygiene in several of them fell well short of the standard. We covered the early raids on Dacres Lane, Lake Market and Jorabagan in this earlier report, and the Thursday findings suggest the problems are not confined to any one part of the city.
Why the Timing Matters
Durga Puja begins in a little over three weeks, and the days between Mahalaya and Dashami are the single busiest eating-out period of the year in Kolkata. Restaurants stock up heavily, kitchens run long hours and cold storage gets stretched. A civic drive that forces outlets to clear out undated stock and clean up now, rather than in the middle of the festival, is arguably well timed. It also follows a separate round of Kolkata Police checks on city markets over sugar and edible oil prices, so traders across the board are under closer watch than usual this month.
What This Means for You as a Customer
The KMC has not published a list of the outlets inspected on Thursday, and we are not naming them either since the civic body has not done so officially. That does not leave you without options. A few practical habits go a long way:
- Look for the FSSAI licence number, which every registered food business is required to display. If a favourite outlet has had its licence suspended, it should not be trading until the suspension is lifted.
- Ask when pre-cooked items such as momos, kebabs and sausages were made. A kitchen that is confident about its stock will not mind the question.
- Be cautious with prawns and other seafood at outlets that do not turn over stock quickly, especially during the humid September weather.
- Check the date on packaged snacks and namkeen at sweet shops, not just on branded goods.
- If you spot a serious hygiene problem, you can complain to the KMC’s food safety wing or through the FSSAI Food Safety Connect app, which routes complaints to the local licensing authority.
What Happens Next
With the zone-wise format now in place, the drive is expected to move through other dense food districts, and the usual suspects would be Park Street and the New Market area, the Chinatown eateries of Tangra, the north Kolkata sweet belt around Shyambazar and the roll and biryani strip in Esplanade. Establishments found with serious violations face licence suspension in the same way as the 54 already hit, while less severe lapses draw refrain notices. Lab results from the 161 samples collected earlier this month are also pending and could lead to further action.
FAQs
Which areas did the KMC food safety drive cover on 17 September?
Thursday’s inspections focused on the Golpark area of south Kolkata, starting with a well-known sweet shop and moving on to several prominent restaurants and a popular momo outlet.
What did inspectors find?
Unhygienic conditions in a sweet preparation area, ingredients unfit for consumption, undated meat storage, sausages and jaggery that had to be discarded, processed kebabs with visible fungus, and stale prawns, meat and pre-made momos at a momo eatery.
How many restaurants have lost their licence so far?
Following the first week of inspections in early September, 54 establishments had their FSSAI licences suspended and 89 received refrain notices. Around 10 of the suspended outlets are close to resuming operations after compliance.
Has the KMC named the outlets inspected at Golpark?
No official list has been released for Thursday’s round. Any action taken, such as licence suspension, would be reflected in the outlet’s FSSAI status.
Will the drive continue?
Yes. The KMC has moved to a zone-wise inspection model, so other neighbourhoods with concentrations of eateries are expected to be covered in the coming days.
The Bottom Line
The KMC’s food safety drive is back, it is now working neighbourhood by neighbourhood, and its first stop at Golpark turned up the same problems seen across the city earlier this month: undated meat, stale seafood and kitchens that do not meet basic hygiene norms. With Durga Puja around the corner, the pressure on eateries to clean up is only going to increase. As a diner, the best defence remains a quick look at the licence, a question about freshness and a willingness to walk away when something looks wrong. KolkataDekho will follow the drive as it moves to other parts of the city.
Sources: Kolkata Municipal Corporation food safety inspection details as reported by The Statesman (17 September 2026); figures from the first-phase drive cross-checked against earlier reporting by The Statesman on KMC licence suspensions and refrain notices.
Featured image: Stainless steel cooking pots on a commercial kitchen stove, photo by Francisco Suarez on Unsplash.
