FDA revokes licence of McDonald's store after action over cheese

The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has revoked the licence of a McDonald's outlet in the state's Ahmednagar district after taking action against it over cheese, an official said on Saturday.

The eatery belonging to the fast food giant had faced FDA scrutiny for allegedly using a cheese-like product in their dishes without indicating that it was actually a cheese substitute, thereby misleading customers, he said.

Following an inspection and subsequent objections, the licence of the outlet was suspended, but it was revoked recently after the chain filed a compliance report confirming that they had removed the word cheese' from product names.

FDA then sought the fast food giant's clarification over the presence of milk fat and vegetable fat in products advertised as containing cheese.

Since their clarification was unsatisfactory, we suspended their licence in November last year. They appealed against the suspension before the FDA commissioner in Mumbai. 

The commissioner heard arguments from both sides and instructed the fast food restaurant chain that they cannot use the word cheese' in their product names if they are not using real cheese, he said.

In the order, FDA Commissioner Abhimanyu Kale directed McDonald's to revise their labelling and prominently tag the products as cheese analogue nuggets or non-dairy cheese nuggets in a font size and colour that is easily visible and distinguishable from regular cheese products.