India

Maggi Controversy: More States Order Tests, Top Nestle Officials Meet Delhi Health Minister

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Shares in Nestle dropped nearly 10 per cent in morning trade on Wednesday, amid the nation-wide scrutiny of its popular snack Maggi noodles for high content of lead and mono-sodium glutamate or MSG, a taste enhancer.

Two top officials from Nestle India are meeting with Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Kumar Jain and other senior officials of the Delhi government which had summoned the company after declaring on Tuesday that it had found 10 of 13 packs of the noodles it tested as “unsafe,” with high lead content.

The Delhi government said it has decided to initiate a case against Nestle “for sale of an unsafe product” and is also considering a fine for “misbranding,” as it found five samples with MSG, without a declaration on the label.
While the chief of Delhi’s BJP unit Satish Upadhyay has demanded that Maggi be immediately recalled from Delhi markets, the state Health Minister Satyendra Kumar Jain said, “The government will initiate action and will follow the legal course. Adulteration of any kind in food will not be tolerated.”

Many other states said they are now testing Maggi, including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bihar, Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. Kerala has ordered a pullout of Maggi noodles from about 1300 government-run outlets, till there is clarity on quality.

Goa’s Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has said that the Maggi noodles samples it tested were found to be safe for human consumption. It said that the samples tested negative for MSG and lead content.
Maggi noodles has been caught in controversy since laboratory tests ordered by Uttar Pradesh food inspectors on a batch allegedly found eight times as much lead as permissible.

Analysts say Maggi noodles contributes over 20 per cent to Nestle’s revenues and a ban on the product could cause a huge dent in Nestle’s bottom line.

In more trouble for Nestle, a man from Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore has alleged that he found larvae in a milk powder box from the company. He has alleged that his baby fell sick after consuming the milk.

Sources say officials at the food analysis laboratory in Coimbatore confirmed the presence of worms in the milk powder and certified it as unsafe for consumption.

On Maggi noodles, Nestle India has said that it has got samples tested in an external laboratory as well as in house and that the product was found “safe to eat”

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