FDA Investigates Pune Sweet Shop After Human Thumb Found in Laddu

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has launched a formal investigation after a human thumb was allegedly discovered in a laddu purchased from a sweet shop in Pune’s Ambegaon tehsil. The incident, reported from Gohe Budruk village, has raised serious concerns about hygiene and safety protocols in food preparation and handling.

According to initial reports, on June 1, Ramchandra Potkule, a resident of Gohegaon, purchased 250 grams of laddu and some bhel from Nityanand Hotel in Dimbhegaon. After consuming the sweets with his family, a human thumb was found embedded inside one of the laddus. Following the consumption, several members of the family reportedly experienced symptoms of nausea and dysentery. Authorities were informed, prompting the FDA to initiate a probe on June 21.

During the preliminary investigation, officials discovered that the severed thumb likely belonged to the son of the hotel owner, Balu Bhokare. The FDA stated that the owner’s son had met with a serious accident while operating a laddu mixing machine. An electric outage had disrupted the process, and upon restoration of power, the boy’s hand was caught in the machine. Rescue personnel were reportedly forced to cut open the machinery to extract his hand, after which he was hospitalized.

Shockingly, the contaminated batch of laddus made during the incident was not recalled or discarded but instead sold to unsuspecting customers. Kailash Gengje, the sarpanch of Gohe Budruk, confirmed that no efforts were made to withdraw the affected sweets from the market, intensifying public outrage.

Suresh Annapure, Joint Commissioner of the FDA (Pune Region), informed that the agency’s team had questioned the hotel owner and staff to reconstruct the sequence of events. He emphasized that strict action would be taken upon the conclusion of the investigation.

This case has surfaced just weeks after a similar horrifying episode in Mumbai, where a customer reportedly found a human finger in an ice cream ordered online. That incident led to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) inspecting Fortune Dairy Industries in Pune’s Indapur taluka, the ice cream supplier, and ordering the immediate shutdown of the manufacturing unit.

Both cases have sparked alarm about gaps in food safety compliance and have prompted renewed calls for stringent monitoring of food businesses, particularly those involving mechanized food preparation.

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