Inside Kashmir’s Rotten Meat Crackdown

For years, bad meat passed through official gates. Now, a single seizure has put the entire supply chain on trial.

- Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat

I was there when they opened the cold storage unit in Zakura.

It was a typical July day, the one that wears you down with heat, smell, and exhaustion.

But nothing could’ve prepared us for what we found behind that shutter.

Piled high in crates was meat - 1,200 kilograms of it: chopped, packed, and decomposing. There was no refrigeration and ventilation. And, the spoiled stock was about to be dispatched to different eateries across the city.

The officers who carried out the raid, from the Food Safety wing of the Drug and Food Control Organisation, said they had never made a seizure this big.

For me, it confirmed what I’ve long feared: we are eating meat that should have been destroyed, not served.

This latest seizure isn't an isolated incident. It's a sign of a much deeper rot in how food is handled, regulated and consumed in Kashmir.

We are a society that holds meat close. From family dinners to wedding feasts to street-side tuji, meat is at the centre of our plates. Yet, we don’t know what we’re eating anymore.

We rarely ask questions or look closely. Instead, we trust too easily, and that trust is being taken advantage of every single day.

Over the past few years, I’ve tracked the unchecked influx of frozen meat, fish and poultry into Kashmir. Much of it arrives in trucks from outside the region, crossing into the valley via Lakhanpur or Qazigund. It’s rarely inspected.