Dark store raids and licence suspensions in India

Updated October 2026

Food-safety officials and local authorities have acted against 19 named dark stores and warehouses in 6 cities since mid-2024. In 9 cases the store lost its licence, was sealed or was refused a licence. In the rest, officials inspected the store, destroyed stock, took samples or issued notices, and no closure was made public.

Expired stock and chillers running too warm were the most common findings, in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Jaipur.

List of dark store raids and licence suspensions

Newest first, by the date the action became public. Each status shows the position at that time and may have changed since.

Food-safety raids and licence action at dark stores and warehouses
Date	App	Store	City	Authority	What happened	Status
8 October 2026	Swiggy Instamart	Hastinapuram	Hyderabad	Telangana food safety officials	Riders protested that they were made to deliver expired goods. An inspection found 14 expired items.	Inspected, still operating
4 October 2026	Blinkit	Vishwa Nagar, New Sanganer Road	Jaipur	Rajasthan Food Safety and Drug Control department	164 food packets stored at the wrong temperature destroyed; ghee samples sent for testing.	Stock destroyed, samples taken
30 September 2026	Flipkart Minutes	Panjeshah Road, Charminar	Hyderabad	Telangana food safety authority (TG SAFE)	Expired and damaged food, pests and poor cold storage found in a 16-store drive. FSSAI licence suspended.	Licence suspended
30 September 2026	Flipkart Minutes	Chintal	Hyderabad	Telangana food safety authority (TG SAFE)	Inspected in the same 16-store drive but not among the four suspended. Some stores in the drive got improvement and show-cause notices.	Inspected, still operating
30 September 2026	Flipkart Minutes	Gajularamaram	Hyderabad	Telangana food safety authority (TG SAFE)	Inspected in the same 16-store drive but not among the four suspended. Some stores in the drive got improvement and show-cause notices.	Inspected, still operating
30 September 2026	Flipkart Minutes	Moosarambagh	Hyderabad	Telangana food safety authority (TG SAFE)	Inspected in the same 16-store drive but not among the four suspended. Some stores in the drive got improvement and show-cause notices.	Inspected, still operating
30 September 2026	Swiggy Instamart	Pet Basheerabad	Hyderabad	Telangana food safety authority (TG SAFE)	Expired and damaged food, pests and poor cold storage found in a 16-store drive. FSSAI licence suspended.	Licence suspended
30 September 2026	Swiggy Instamart	SBH Bank Colony, Saidabad	Hyderabad	Telangana food safety authority (TG SAFE)	Expired and damaged food, pests and poor cold storage found in a 16-store drive. FSSAI licence suspended.	Licence suspended
30 September 2026	Swiggy Instamart	Chintal	Hyderabad	Telangana food safety authority (TG SAFE)	Inspected in the same 16-store drive but not among the four suspended. Some stores in the drive got improvement and show-cause notices.	Inspected, still operating
30 September 2026	Swiggy Instamart	Gajularamaram	Hyderabad	Telangana food safety authority (TG SAFE)	Inspected in the same 16-store drive but not among the four suspended. Some stores in the drive got improvement and show-cause notices.	Inspected, still operating
30 September 2026	Swiggy Instamart	Shah Ali Banda	Hyderabad	Telangana food safety authority (TG SAFE)	Inspected in the same 16-store drive but not among the four suspended. Some stores in the drive got improvement and show-cause notices.	Inspected, still operating
30 September 2026	Zepto	Ram Koti	Hyderabad	Telangana food safety authority (TG SAFE)	Expired and damaged food, pests and poor cold storage found in a 16-store drive. FSSAI licence suspended.	Licence suspended
10 September 2026	Blinkit	Fateh Tiba, Adarsh Nagar	Jaipur	Rajasthan Food Safety and Drug Control department	Chilled goods found at about 32°C; around 800 packets of milk products destroyed on the spot.	Stock destroyed
12 August 2026	Zepto	Hoskote warehouse (operated with Nippon Express)	Hoskote	Karnataka food safety department	Warehouse run with a logistics partner sealed after a food-safety inspection.	Sealed
7 August 2026	Blinkit	Malad West facility	Mumbai	Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration	Unhygienic conditions, expired stock and pests found.	Licence suspended
3 July 2026	Blinkit	Jingkieng Nongthymmai	Shillong	Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council	Trading licence refused to protect local traders, under the council’s Sixth Schedule powers.	Licence refused
9 June 2025	Blinkit	Balewadi dark store	Pune	Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration	Inspected on 5 June 2025; food on the floor and missing pest-control and cold-chain certificates. The store reopened after the licence was renewed (17 June 2025).	Suspended, then reopened
8 June 2025	Zepto	Dharavi	Mumbai	Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration	Fungus on food, stagnant water and faulty cold storage found. Food business licence suspended until the problems were fixed.	Licence suspended
7 June 2024	Blinkit	Devar Yamjal warehouse (partner-operated)	Hyderabad	Telangana Commissioner of Food Safety task force	Unhygienic, dusty premises. Infested grain and expired food seized. An older case, included for context.	Stock seized

Which apps and cities have had the most dark store raids

Swiggy Instamart: 6 actions
Blinkit: 6 actions
Flipkart Minutes: 4 actions
Zepto: 3 actions

By city: Hyderabad 12, Jaipur 2, Mumbai 2, Hoskote 1, Pune 1, Shillong 1.

The counts tell you where inspectors went and which cases became public. They do not tell you which app is safest. Blinkit has the largest network, so it is likely to appear more often. Hyderabad tops the list because one TG SAFE drive in September 2026 covered 16 stores across three apps. Of those, 10 stores are named.

Some drives name no stores, so they are not in the list. On 14 August 2026, Maharashtra’s FDA said it had inspected 86 delivery-platform food outlets linked to Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart. It suspended the licences of 14 and gave improvement notices to 60.

Why food-safety officers can raid a dark store

A dark store stores and sells food, so it needs an FSSAI licence, and state food-safety officers can inspect it like any shop. They can issue improvement notices, destroy unsafe stock, take samples, and suspend or cancel the licence. Inspections have become much more frequent since mid-2025, especially in Maharashtra, Telangana and Rajasthan. That licence sits alongside the trade licence and fire NOC in the dark store licence checklist.

How to check your quick delivery order for expired or warm food

Check the dates. Look at the “use by” or “best before” date before you accept or open the order.
Feel the chilled items. Milk, curd, paneer and ice cream should arrive cold. In Jaipur, inspectors found goods meant to be kept below 5°C stored at about 32°C in one Blinkit store, and paneer at about 13°C in another.
Check the store’s licence. If you have a store’s 14-digit FSSAI number, from the licence board at the premises, enter it in FBO Search on the FoSCoS portal. It shows the business name, the address the licence covers and whether the licence is active or suspended.
Report it in the app with photos. Ask for a refund or replacement and keep the screenshots. If the app does not help, use the escalation routes for Blinkit customer care, Zepto customer care and Instamart customer care, including the grievance officer.
Complain to the food-safety department. Your state food-safety department and FSSAI accept complaints about unsafe food, including through FSSAI’s Food Safety Connect app. The October 2026 inspection in Hastinapuram, Hyderabad, followed complaints by riders.

General information only. It is not legal advice. For your own case, check the official FSSAI and state food-safety websites for the current complaint process.

Other police and food-safety action against quick delivery apps

These cases are not tied to one named store. Newest first.

27 October 2025: Varanasi police arrest a fake Zepto and Blinkit franchise gang. Cyber police in Varanasi arrested people accused of taking money for fake Zepto and Blinkit franchises. The case shows why franchise applications should go only through a company’s own website.

Frequently asked questions about dark store raids

Is my order safe if my area’s store was raided?

Most actions cover one store at a time. A store with a suspended licence should not be sending you food. A store that was only inspected may still be running after fixing its problems. Check the expiry date and how cold the chilled items are on every delivery.

Why do raids keep finding problems with cold storage?

Milk, curd, paneer, ice cream and meat must stay cold from the supplier to your door. Inspectors in Jaipur and Hyderabad found chillers running far too warm and leaking dairy packs. Fast-growing networks open new stores quickly, and staff training and maintenance do not always keep up.

Has the store near me reopened after a suspension?

It can, once the problems are fixed and officials clear it. Blinkit’s Balewadi store in Pune reopened in June 2025, about a week after its suspension, once its licence was renewed. Each status in the list shows the position when the action became public, so check whether the app delivers to you now.