How McDonald’s ended up in a 'fake cheese' mess
BSE that day, a Friday, to close at ₹793.05. By the next Friday, the stock had crashed more than 11%. It closed at ₹769.90 on 6 March.
To get to the bottom of the ‘cheesegate’, Mint visited Maharashtra FDA commissioner’s office at Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC), the city’s prime business district, on 5 March. The airy building had an air of calmness that belied the hustle and traffic jams that are innate to BKC. Commissioner Kale occupies a spacious corner office on the second floor, one that would make every top executive in space-starved Mumbai envious.
Kale keeps a moustache. The dark hair on his square shaped face is well combed. That day, he sat wearing a checked jacket.
He reiterated to this writer that analogue cheese was found in the food during inspection at the Ahmednagar McDonald’s outlet but said little else. He didn’t have time for a more detailed conversation. Another official at the FDA, who asked not to be named, said that the Ahmednagar inspector issued notices to Westlife after going through the supplier-provided ingredient list on the packaging of raw materials like patties, nuggets and cheesecakes.
“The ingredient list clearly mentioned palm oil and other products apart from cheese when the name said cheese patty," this official said. There was no laboratory testing involved when arriving at the conclusion that the products contained cheese analogues, he added. The FDA commissioner did not respond to Mint’s follow-up queries messaged to him on Tuesday.
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