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By:

Amol Deshmukh and Vaibhav Mathkari

5 March 2025 at 11:13:08 pm

Can Maharashtra’s Food Industry Take Civic Responsibility?

The food industry can turn everyday business practices into everyday civic action. AI generated image We all love eating out. Maharashtra’s food culture is inseparable from its identity. From a small vada pav stall to a five-star hotel, and from a family restaurant to a large wedding caterer, food businesses are part of everyday life. What responsibility does a food business have towards the citizen? Is serving tasty food enough? Or should restaurants also minimise food and plastic waste,...

Can Maharashtra’s Food Industry Take Civic Responsibility?

The food industry can turn everyday business practices into everyday civic action. AI generated image We all love eating out. Maharashtra’s food culture is inseparable from its identity. From a small vada pav stall to a five-star hotel, and from a family restaurant to a large wedding caterer, food businesses are part of everyday life. What responsibility does a food business have towards the citizen? Is serving tasty food enough? Or should restaurants also minimise food and plastic waste, maintain clean kitchens, use safe ingredients, manage waste responsibly and avoid traffic problems outside their premises? Several countries are already asking these questions. Japan has made reducing food loss a national priority, bringing businesses, government agencies and citizens together to prevent usable food from becoming waste. France has taken steps to reduce single-use plastics, including plastic drinking-water bottles in collective catering. Singapore requires large commercial premises to segregate and manage food waste. The European Union is also working to reduce unnecessary single-use plastics and promote circular packaging. Maharashtra need not copy them. But they offer one lesson: civic responsibility cannot rest with the government alone. The food industry has a major role to play. What if Maharashtra took up an 11-point challenge? Imagine major hotels, restaurants, caterers and food establishments voluntarily adopting a civic charter. First, reduce food waste. Large kitchens should track daily waste and aim to cut it by 25 per cent and then 50 per cent. Food safe for consumption should, wherever possible and legally appropriate, be redirected for human consumption. The rest should go for composting, biogas or other scientific treatment. Second, reduce unnecessary plastic water bottles. If safe drinking water is available, why automatically give every customer a plastic bottle? Maharashtra can develop a model using glass, steel and refill systems. Third, rethink packaging. Food delivery has created mountains of packaging. Do we really need all this plastic? Reusable, recyclable and genuinely sustainable alternatives should be preferred. Fourth, end open dumping of food waste. Restaurants should not send organic waste to roadside dumping points. Segregation and treatment should be part of commercial food-waste management. Fifth, make healthy choices available. Menus should include lower-salt, lower-sugar and nutritionally balanced options. This is about choice, not telling people what to eat. Sixth, use cooking oil responsibly. Restaurants should record its use and replacement and ensure used oil goes through authorised channels. Food safety and environmental responsibility should go together. Seventh, make kitchen hygiene a culture, not a certificate. The World Health Organization’s principles are simple: keep clean; separate raw and cooked food; cook properly; maintain safe temperatures; and use safe water and raw materials. The challenge is making them daily habits. Eighth, give consumers a voice. A QR code could allow customers to report serious food-safety concerns through a system that records and follows up complaints. Ninth, use technology intelligently. Artificial intelligence, sensors and digital systems can monitor temperature, hygiene schedules, waste segregation and other safety parameters. Tenth, think beyond the kitchen. If customers block footpaths, roads or emergency entrances, restaurants should help manage the situation. A successful restaurant should not become a problem for its neighbourhood. Finally, the Safe Food Oath. Can Maharashtra’s food industry voluntarily pledge that no known unsafe substance will knowingly be used in food? The proposed oath could state: “We pledge that we shall not knowingly use any carcinogenic, teratogenic, hepatotoxic, nephrotoxic or allergenic substance as a colouring agent, flavour or taste enhancer, adulterant, sweetener, or preservative or for any other food-processing purpose. We shall use only legally permitted and scientifically evaluated ingredients and additives and maintain transparency and accountability in the preparation and serving of food.” This is not a call to ban every chemical or synthetic food additive. Many are legally permitted after safety evaluation. The point is simple: unsafe substances should never be shortcuts for making food cheaper, brighter, sweeter or more attractive. Civic Food Industry Award Maharashtra could take the idea further by inviting the food and hospitality industry to adopt an 11-point Civic Food Industry Charter. Those meeting the standards could be independently assessed and recognised through a Maharashtra Civic Food Industry Award. The award would ask not only, “How good is your food?” But also, how much food did you save? How much plastic did you eliminate? How safely do you manage your kitchen? What happens to your food waste? Are your ingredients safe? Do you respect the neighbourhood? That would give “hospitality” a deeper meaning. Maharashtra has the institutions, entrepreneurs, technology and, most importantly, a food industry large enough to make a difference. The government can make regulations. Citizens can demand better standards. But the food industry can lead by choice. So the question before Maharashtra’s hotels, restaurants, caterers and food businesses is simple: Are you ready to accept the challenge — not just to serve citizens, but to take responsibility for them? (Deshmukh is a forensics scientist. Mathkari is co-founder, Civic Engineering Foundation.)

Ambitious biofuel push hits roadblock as flex-fuel engines lag

The ethanol conundrum — Part 2


In just five years, grain-based ethanol availability rises to over 10.28 billion litres; policy incentives spur production, but industry walks a tightrope

Kolhapur: When the Narendra Modi-led NDA government assumed office in 2014, ethanol blending in petrol stood at a modest 1.5 per cent. By December 2025, that figure had climbed to 20 per cent — a steep rise over 11 years that has helped the country save an estimated Rs 1.4 lakh crore in foreign exchange on fuel imports.


Buoyed by the early achievement of its initial targets, the Centre had first set its sights on raising ethanol blending to 30 per cent by 2030. With the 10 per cent and 20 per cent milestones achieved ahead of schedule, the timeline was advanced to December 2027. That, in turn, required a sharp expansion in ethanol production capacity.


The government rolled out what it described as a financially viable and investor-friendly framework for ethanol manufacturing, triggering a rapid build-up of capacity. But as blending levels approach 20 per cent, the limits of conventional vehicle engines have begun to show. Unless multi-fuel or flex-fuel engines become widely available, industry stakeholders warn, uncertainty will continue to loom over the ethanol sector.


For biofuels to be deployed at scale, availability alone is not enough; vehicle engines must also be compatible. Recognising this, the Centre worked on two fronts — announcing the National Bio-Energy Policy while, in parallel, Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari publicly nudged the automobile industry to roll out flex-fuel vehicles within a defined timeframe. However, while ethanol production gathered pace, the vehicle manufacturing ecosystem failed to keep up.


As ethanol blending crossed 15 per cent, and with the 30 per cent target in view, the government announced an interest subvention scheme to support capital investment in ethanol projects. The scheme, which ran until 2024, attracted 196 promoters, all of whom set up grain-based ethanol plants. These projects together account for an installed capacity of 8.59 billion litres.


In addition, 38 more distilleries, with a combined capacity of 1.69 billion litres, are nearing completion. The scale and speed of expansion are evident from projects such as the Grainspan facility in Ahmedabad, which alone has a capacity of 350 kilolitres per day. Much of this capacity has been added over the past four years.


These ethanol plants are spread across Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal. Notably, many of the promoters are first-time entrants to the sector, coming from unrelated industries. Financial institutions provided capital, the government offered interest support and assured procurement, and projects were commissioned at breakneck speed. As a result, ethanol production capacity surged by 87 per cent — a surge that has now become a source of strain.


Grain-based ethanol today accounts for a larger share of incremental capacity than ethanol produced by the sugar industry. To support these projects, the Centre supplied grain at subsidised rates through the Food Corporation of India. Maize has emerged as a key feedstock, with the government incentivising its cultivation by fixing a minimum support price of Rs 2,300 per quintal. This led to a rise in maize acreage across the country.


However, with ethanol procurement orders drying up, maize purchases have slowed, pushing market prices down to around Rs 16 per kg. Farmers and processors alike are feeling the impact.


To deal with surplus ethanol, the Centre has permitted exports. But global prices for maize-based ethanol are significantly lower — about Rs 58 per litre — compared with the domestic assured price of Rs 71.80 per litre. Exporting ethanol at current rates would mean a loss of roughly Rs 13 per litre.


Some large manufacturers have chosen to absorb these losses to keep plants running at full capacity, but industry executives concede that this is not a sustainable solution. Overall, India’s ethanol sector finds itself walking a tightrope, caught between policy ambition, technological constraints and market realities.


(To be continued…)

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