Parsi Dairy Farm loses license
Mumbai’s 110-Year-Old Parsi Dairy Farm Loses Food Licence After FDA Hygiene Crackdown
July 18, 2026
by arZan ParsiKhabar
The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has suspended the food business licence of Parsi Dairy Farm Pvt Ltd, the 110-year-old Mumbai institution, after an inspection found serious hygiene and food safety violations at the outlet.What the FDA found Inspectors cited fungal growth and the presence of flies at the premises, along with other hygiene lapses, as grounds for suspending the FSSAI licence.
News reports indicate the FDA also seized goods worth roughly ₹1.90 lakh from the shop during the raid. Parsi Dairy Farm has halted operations following the action.Part of a wider driveThe move against Parsi Dairy Farm was one part of a broader, statewide FDA crackdown on food adulteration and hygiene violations across Mumbai and Palghar, led by FDA commissioner Tukaram Mundhe. Inspection teams targeted dairy establishments, hotels, restaurants, and sweet manufacturers as part of the drive. Other well-known names caught up in the same operation include Shalimar and K Rustoms.
A 110-year run, told through Parsi Khabar’s own coverage Parsi Khabar has followed Parsi Dairy Farm’s story for over a decade, and that archive gives useful context for how the brand got here.The dairy was founded in 1916 by an 18-year-old Nariman Ardeshir, who began with a single can of milk sold on Princess Street in Marine Lines, then went on to pioneer home delivery of milk in pre-Independence Bombay. The business grew into a 300-acre production operation at Talasari on the Maharashtra-Gujarat border, and later diversified from milk into ghee, curd, paneer, kulfi, mithai and the brand’s well-known Great Indian Toffee (Parsi Khabar, September 2025:
Nariman Ardeshir, Founder of Parsi Dairy Farm
How Mumbai-based Parsi Dairy Farm built a 109-year legacy of trust and purity”).The dairy has not always looked this secure. In 2015, Parsi Khabar reported that the Nariman family was considering selling its Talasari land and potentially the brand itself, as daily milk supply had fallen from 15,000 litres to around 2,000 litres following a 2006 labour strike (“Will Mumbai’s 99-year-old iconic Parsi Dairy Farm shut shop?”).
In 2018, a dispute among family partners over the same 300-acre Talasari land ended up in the Bombay High Court, with the family accusing one partner of fraud over a forged power of attorney (“Parsi Dairy Farm owners accuse partner of fraud”).
The brand rebounded since: in 2023, the fourth generation of the family — siblings Sarfaraz K Irani and Bakhtyar K Irani, and cousins Zeenia K Patel and Parvana S Mistry — revamped the flagship Marine Lines store into a more Instagram-friendly space while keeping recipes and ingredients unchanged (“South Mumbai’s iconic 107-year-old Parsi Dairy Farm dons a new avatar”).
By 2025, the company had grown to three physical stores in Mumbai, a network of dark stores across the state and beyond, tie-ups with quick-commerce and hotel chains, and reported revenue of ₹38 crore in FY2023-24, up from ₹27 crore the year before.
That same 2025 profile noted that Parsi Dairy’s paneer sales had actually spiked during a nationwide paneer-adulteration scandal, on the strength of its reputation for purity (Parsi Khabar, September 2025, linked above).That reputation is precisely what makes this week’s FDA action notable: a brand whose entire identity has rested on “unchanging purity” across four generations is now the one facing a hygiene-linked licence suspension.
Reaction
The news drew a strong reaction online, with many social media users expressing shock that a brand as established as Parsi Dairy Farm had been flagged for hygiene violations.The FDA action remains a licence suspension pending compliance; it is not a permanent closure order.
Parsi Khabar will update this story as more details, including any response from Parsi Dairy Farm’s management, become available.
The move against Parsi Dairy Farm was one part of a broader, statewide FDA crackdown on food adulteration and hygiene violations across Mumbai and Palghar, led by FDA commissioner Tukaram Mundhe.
Inspection teams targeted dairy establishments, hotels, restaurants, and sweet manufacturers as part of the drive. Other well-known names caught up in the same operation include Shalimar and K Rustoms.A 110-year run, told through Parsi Khabar’s own coverage Parsi Khabar has followed Parsi Dairy Farm’s story for over a decade, and that archive gives useful context for how the brand got here.The dairy was founded in 1916 by an 18-year-old Nariman Ardeshir, who began with a single can of milk sold on Princess Street in Marine Lines, then went on to pioneer home delivery of milk in pre-Independence Bombay.
Indian sweets by Parsi Dairy FarmWhile processes and ingredients remain the same, the brand experiments by adding flavours to the base product. For instance, the team has added raspberry to its coconut sweet, without compromising on the base product.“The peda may look different, but the recipe is the same,” says Zeenia, Director at Parsi Dairy Farm. “We are not running behind trends like matcha or superfoods. Matcha is a trend everyone wants to do, but I don’t think it makes sense because it’s going to die out.”The brand sells its products via three physical stores in Mumbai—at Marine Lines, Borivali, and Ghatkopar. It operates 16 dark stores across Mumbai, and 12 dark stores across Nashik, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Surat, Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and Pune. It also sells via a mobile app and its own website; these contribute to 10% of total sales.
Besides, Parsi Dairy Farm has partnered with quick commerce platforms Swiggy and Zomato. It has also tied up with online retailers Amazon, Big Basket, and JioMart; and premium retail stores such as Nature’s Basket, Reliance Retail, Trent Star Bazaar, and Nuts & Spices to deliver products with longer shelf-life across other Indian states.“We are using nitrogen and modified atmosphere packaging for products like kaju katli to increase shelf-life by 15-20 days, without using preservatives,” says Sarfaraz.B2B sales—both online and offline combined—contribute to 35% of total sales.It has also partnered with retail outlets and restaurants including Taj Hotels across India, Oberoi Hotels, and Olive Bar & Restaurants—this channel amounts to 55% of total sales.
Parsi Dairy Farm staff
According to RoC filings accessed by SMB Story, Parsi Dairy Farm generated a revenue of Rs 38 crore in FY2023-2024, up from Rs 27 crore in FY2022-2023.In recent years, Parsi Dairy Farm has undergone a rebranding exercise to connect with younger consumers, while sticking its original identity. It has retained the classic blue and white colours of the brand for nostalgia, and redesigned its stores with modern ‘Instagrammable’ aesthetics.Commenting on profits, Sarfaraz says, “Any dairy’s key profit will always be the value-added products made out of milk. Milk sales are always high in terms of quantities but low on margins as it comes under the category of essential daily requirements.”
The big picture
According to market research company IMARC, the Indian dairy industry was valued at Rs 18,975 billion in 2024, and is expected to grow to Rs 57,001 billion by 2033, at a CAGR of 12.35%.
Our biggest strength lies in its heritage. By staying true to our unchanging purity and traditional methods, we have earned deep customer trust and a premium image.”Franchising is not in the cards at the moment as the brand is “too personal and too close to us,” says Sarfaraz, adding that he wants Parsi Dairy Farm to reach more homes in the next 100 years and beyond.
