Hours after Nestle decided to take Maggi noodles off the shelves in India citing “unfounded confusions”, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on Friday ordered recall of all nine variants of the popular instant noodles from the market, terming the product “unsafe and hazardous”.
The FSSAI served a show-cause notice on Nestle India to explain within 15 days why the product approval given to these variants should not be withdrawn. The company has been directed to submit a compliance report within three days and furnish progress reports on the recall daily till completion.
Paul Bulcke, chief executive officer, Nestle, flew down to India in a bid to reassure customers and the authorities that Maggi noodles are safe for consumption.
Madhya Pradesh and Bihar are the latest to ban the sale of the brand over food-safety concerns.
The company said Maggi noodles would remain off the shelves till all doubts were cleared as the “environment of confusion” was not conducive to have the product in the market.
“Unfortunately, recent developments and growing concerns about the product have led to confusion among the consumers to such an extent that we have decided to take the product temporarily off the shelves, in spite of it being safe,” Mr. Bulcke said.
“We have been in India for over 100 years. Doing business in India is good and India is a good market for Nestle and that is why I am here,” he said.
Mr. Bulcke ruled out challenging the results of the tests done by the Indian authorities, and said the company would cooperate with them to resolve the issue and bring Maggi back on the shelves at the earliest. “That is our primary objective. We want to restore the trust of the consumers in the brand,” he said.
Stressing that Nestle applied the same quality standards and food safety and quality assurance systems everywhere in the world, he said the company had around 400 people working in laboratories, testing food samples all the time to ensure safety. The number globally was 8,000.
Mr. Bulcke said lead was omnipresent in the environment and as per the company’s testing, its amount in Maggi noodles was below the permissible limits.
On the objections over the presence of monosodium glutamate in the noodles, Nestle clarified that though the company did not add MSG in its product, some ingredients such as groundnut protein, onion powder and wheat flour contained it naturally.
“Nestle has decided to remove the mention of ‘no added MSG’ from the label,” it said.
| » | In April, the food regulator of Uttar Pradesh, UP FDA had ordered recall of a batch of about 2 lakh packs of the Maggi instant noodles due to higher than permitted levels of lead and food additives. |
| » | After Uttar Pradesh, 14 states conducted tests on samples of Maggi for food safety. Five states, including Delhi, have banned it. |
| » | On May 29, taking a “serious” note of quality issues related to global giant Nestle’s famous noodle brand Maggi, the government asked the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India to look into the matter. The FSSAI has collected more samples of Maggi from different states for testing. |
| » | Meanwhile, Hindi actors Madhuri Dixit, Amitabh Bachchan and Preity Zinta, who endorse Maggi were served legal notice on the claims made in the advertisement. A complaint was filed in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Barabanki, on May 30, by lawyer Santosh Kumar Singh, saying that by endorsing Maggi the film stars have misled people. The Consumer Affairs Ministry Additional Secretary G Gurucharan says "brand ambassadors would be liable for action if advertisements are found to be misleading.” |
| » | On May 30, Madhuri Dixit tweeted that she met officials of Nestle and the company has reassured that "they adhere to stringent testing for quality and safety and are working with the authorities closely.” |
| » | The same day, the Food Safety and Drug Administration of the U.P. government filed a case against the manufacturing company, Nestle India Ltd., and five others, including the Barabanki store from where samples with excess lead were seized. |
| » | The Uttarakhand Food Safety Department too collected samples of the noodle brand from the company’s plant at Pantnagar in the State. Confirming the presence of MSG, the state banned Maggi. |
| » | Nestle India said it has got tested samples of the noodle brand in an external laboratory as well as in-house and the product has been found “safe to eat” with lead levels within the permissible levels for consumption. The company was, however, silent on presence of the taste enhancer monosodium glutamate (MSG). |
| » | Nestle India's stocks continued to slumpamid growing concerns about safety standards of its popular Maggi noodles. In a BSE filing, the company said it has not received any order from the central or any state FDA authority for recall of its Maggi noodles. |
| » | State-owned retail outlets in Kerala and Delhi have banned the sale of Maggi. Leading retail chain Big Bazaar has also reportedly taken them off from its shelves. |
| » | Army has issued advisory to its personnel asking them not to eat Maggi noodles and directed its canteens not to sell them till further orders. |
