After 5 Star Hotels Bengaluru Food Raids Reach Indira Canteen With Rats And Worms Found

Bengaluru’s food safety crackdown has now reached a rather awkward place: an Indira Canteen. After days of raids at star hotels, restaurants and food suppliers, officials have sealed the warehouse of an Indira Canteen in Gottigere over unhygienic conditions.

And if that was not enough, reports say rats were found crawling around, while black worms were found in a sack of sugar at an Indira Canteen kitchen. At this point, Bengaluru’s food safety drive appears to have one simple message: expensive food or subsidised food, please keep the kitchen clean.

Officials inspected three Indira Canteens at Gottigere, Singasandra and Lingarajapuram. They found poor food handling, storage issues, improper labelling and misbranding. Notices were issued to all three operators, while the Gottigere warehouse was sealed. Food samples including pulses, cooking oil, turmeric, sugar, salt, jaggery and prepared food have been sent for testing.

The crackdown has also reached the quick commerce world. A Zepto warehouse in Hoskote, operated by Nippon Express, was sealed after officials described the premises as highly unhygienic. Reports said food packets, milk products, bottles, wrappers and garbage were found lying around, along with storage and labelling violations.

Meanwhile, Bengaluru’s luxury hotels have not escaped the food safety sweep either. Thirty teams inspected 60 three star and five star hotels, with officials finding expired food, rotten meat, mouldy vegetables, poor storage and weak separation of vegetarian and non vegetarian food. More than a tonne of food was reportedly destroyed or seized during the wider drive, with 77 samples sent for testing.

In one recent round alone, officials reported 132 kg of unfit food and 15 litres of used cooking oil being seized or discarded. Another inspection found 45 kg of rotten meat at a hotel, while expired dairy products and fungus affected vegetables were also found.

So, no, the earlier figure of 63 restaurants and seven licence suspensions does not belong to Bengaluru. That was Maharashtra’s statewide crackdown and should not be mixed into Bengaluru’s numbers.

For Bengaluru, officials have confirmed the inspection of 60 hotels in the latest major drive, along with the three Indira Canteens and the Zepto warehouse. They have not released a single verified figure for the total number of food safety raids or licence suspensions across Bengaluru in 2026.

For now, the city’s kitchens have received a very Bengaluru style reminder: the menu can be fancy, the price can be cheap, but rats and worms are definitely not complimentary.