‘Rats roaming around, owners said treat them as pets’: FDA raids K Rustom & Co

“Rats roaming around the premises, even in between the legs of people” is how the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found the state of Mumbai’s iconic Rustom ice-cream Churchgate establishment when it landed there to conduct a raid on Wednesday, July 8, that lasted for nearly 14 hours. Earlier in the day, the FDA had suspended Rustom’s license after an investigation found serious food safety and hygiene violations, including live rats, houseflies, and expired food items stored at the outlet.

After the suspension order, the establishment should ideally have ceased operations. However, an FDA official told The Indian Express that they found the outlet running business as usual.

The FDA officials started the raid at Rustom around 6.30 pm on Wednesday and continued until 8.30 am on Thursday, July 9, but little did the FDA officials know that they were walking into utter chaos, unlike anything they had ever seen before.

‘At Rustom’s, we were asked to treat rats as our pets’

Not just rats, the Rustom’s also housed at least two cats on its premises.

An FDA official said, “There were at least 15-20 rats roaming around the premises. They were running between our legs, and the owners were asking us not to worry and to treat them as their pets.”

The cats were “roaming freely and urinating wherever they pleased,” the official said.

“At the same time, customers were buying ice creams that were being manufactured in these unhygienic conditions,” the FDA official added, adding that they had never witnessed such unhygienic conditions before.

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“It was far worse than anything we had seen previously. It was a hundred times worse than municipal hospitals that are poorly maintained,” the official said.

Apart from the unhygienic conditions, officials also found expired products during the inspection. Ice cream and raw material worth around Rs 9 lakh were seized, and the FDA is set to initiate adjudication proceedings against the establishment.

“They cannot resume operations until they rectify the entire premises, and there are several issues that needed to be addressed. There are open windows, so we have asked them to install mesh screens. Workers’ clothes were drying inside the manufacturing unit, so we have directed them to create a separate changing area where clothes can also be dried. We have asked them to install rat traps and mesh-fitted French windows at the entrance to prevent rodents from entering. They also need to repaint the premises, among several other changes,” the official said.

The official added that the owners, who are senior citizens, had also been told to approach the FDA if they required guidance on carrying out the necessary improvements.

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Shut for renovation?

When The Indian Express visited the Churchgate outlet of K Rustom & Co on Thursday, a notice pasted on the shutter read: “We regret to inform all our lovely customers that we are shut for renovation from 8 July 2026.”

K Rustom & Co was raided by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) following allegations of rats roaming on the premises (Express Photo)

Founded in 1953 by Khodabux Rustom Irani, fondly known as K Rustom, the iconic Churchgate establishment initially operated like many Irani cafés of its time, selling a range of products.

Over the years, it realised that its location near Marine Drive attracted a steady stream of visitors, making it an ideal destination for ice cream. It eventually became synonymous with its signature ice cream sandwiches, featuring flavours ranging from vanilla and chocolate to strawberry, guava, coffee and paan, tucked between crisp wafers. The parlour has attracted generations of customers over the decades.

In 2014, its mango sandwich ice cream was included in TasteAtlas’ list of the “100 Most Iconic Ice Creams of the World.”