IN HOT SOUP: India bans popular Maggi noodles claiming high doses of LEAD found in tests; has C J Patel (Fiji) warned Fijians not to EAT Maggi Maggi until controversy between Nestle and India is resolved over tests?

4/6/2015

Fijileaks: Why hasn't the gormless Fiji media picked up the story?

India bans Maggi noodles in Delhi for 15 day

Authorities in the Indian capital have banned the sale of Maggi noodles for 15 days after high levels of lead were found in batches tested in Delhi and the state of Uttar Pradesh.The government has ordered countrywide tests of Maggi noodle samples amid a growing food-safety scare.

Several major grocery chains have already taken India's favourite noodles off the shelves.

Nestle India has denied that their noodles are unsafe or unhealthy.

Maggi is a big seller for Nestle in India, with annual sales of about 15bn rupees ($235m; £149m).

It is hugely popular with school and college students, and Nestle's "two-minute" advertising campaign stressing the ease of cooking the instant noodles have made it a household name in India.

Some of India's biggest Bollywood stars, including Amitabh Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit and Preity Zinta, have appeared in Maggi advertisements.

But Maggi noodles have been at the centre of a controversy since laboratory tests on two dozen packets in Uttar Pradesh last month found lead nearly seven times the permissible limits and excess levels of monosodium glutamate (MSG), a food additive.

On Wednesday, the company's shares dropped more than 10% in early trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange after the Delhi government said its food inspectors had found higher levels of lead than permitted in most of the samples tested.

"Tests in Delhi showed that 10 out of 13 samples contained lead beyond the permissible limits. Once we have all the results, Nestle India will be given an opportunity to explain," news agency AFP quoted Food and Consumer Affairs Ministry official G Gurucharan as saying.

"Samples have been tested from all across the country, we are getting the results one by one."

Several major grocery chains have said they are taking the noodles off shelves The authorities said five samples were also found to contain MSG, commonly used as a flavour enhancer for Chinese food, canned vegetables, soups and meat.

MSG is not listed among the ingredients in Maggi noodles.

Meanwhile, authorities in the southern state of Kerala have stopped selling Maggi noodles at more than 1,000 government-run shops following the developments in Uttar Pradesh.

Food and Civil Supplies Minister Anoop Jacob's office said the sale of the brand had been stopped temporarily until "the dispute is resolved", the Press Trust of India reported.

A number of other states - Goa, Haryana, Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu - have also ordered tests on Maggi noodles, reports say.

Nestle India, a subsidiary of Swiss-based Nestle SA, maintains it has strict safety and quality controls in place.

In a recent statement, it said it had had samples of its noodles tested in an internal and an external laboratory which had found the product "safe to eat".

The company also said that it did not "add MSG to Maggi Noodles, and glutamate, if present, may come from naturally occurring sources".

"We are surprised with the content supposedly found in the sample as we monitor the lead content regularly as a part of the regulatory requirements," it added.

A court in Uttar Pradesh state in India sent a notice to Nestlé and a trial is due from 1 July after tests found high lead levels in some noodle samples.

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11 Comments

Thor

4/6/2015 03:58:42 am

Those Maggi noodles made in India. Fiji makes it's own. That's why.

Tester

4/6/2015 04:03:26 am

Even if Fiji makes its own, the recipe is the same

Anyway, why the media have not highlighted the controversy raging between India and Nestle - is it to protect C J Patel business empire

Shannon

4/6/2015 07:57:48 am

Dear Editor,

They're still on the shelves in NZ and Australia - let's not just immediately blame Fiji for everything.

I'm sure even the learned Rajesh still sells them from his shop :-)

The formula is not the same in each country. NZ and Australia use one while Fiji and the rest of the South Pacific use another. It's all about the taste factor.

Anyway, this is not the first time India has been in trouble for "mixing" other items into foodstuff. Surely this was one event that you didn't need to tie Fiji into?

Fiji, NZ or India - All Same

4/6/2015 07:04:55 pm

One cannot deny the facts of how Nestle would manufacture their noodle flavours, whether in India or in NZ and Fiji.

Maggie Noodles whatever is the flavour, they all have one thing in common. The ingredients are largely same but varying in ratio. I can talk because I know their ingredients as a importer supplier to Nestle in my last job.

All those ingreidientsare largely manufactured in India and sold to Nestle NZ. They are all plant based ingredients. I can even short list what ingriedient in the flavour would have caused the problem.

Any one flavour would have a plant ingredient that also has high lead content and that would have caused the lead poisoning scare.

Nestle is an ISO registered manufacturer. It must be they changed their ingredient suppler for one of these items or more so their supplier has changed their supplier where the untested batch of ingredient is involved.

Therefore Shannon, Fiji and C J Patel as well as NZ are implicated. Question remains Maggie Noodles have been temoprarily banned in India due to tested lead poisoning +ve and Nestle will have to do what it takes to correct their wrongs.

Shannon

5/6/2015 12:24:30 am

You were an importer - not a manufacturer. Thats like a Coca Cola reseller claiming he knows exactly what goes into the drink and the ratios.

If the situation was really that bad, the Australian government would have acted by now and banned the product and the same would apply with the NZ government.

The point I am trying to drive across is that it has nothing to do with Fiji's government or the media in Fiji. It has to do with the India's lack of quality control as usual and laxity on the part of the relevant Indian Ministry tasked with ensuring food hygiene standards.

If we keep blaming everything back on Fiji, it makes absolutely no sense. Its like a car accident happening in New York and we all make it the fault of the Lands and Transport Ministry in Fiji

Chiku

5/6/2015 09:28:12 pm

Look at all the low grade fuel dumped in Fiji right under the nose of every Fiji government.

Silly Talk

7/6/2015 02:47:52 pm

I am not here to teach you what goes into Maggie or any other noodle flavour, but certainly there are dehydrated plant products that make bulk of the flavours.

It could well be that there is a new flavour created in India that has ended up using a plant herb that has high lead content.

It is therefore equally important that NZ and Australia and Fiji consumers are informed and Nestle clears air to what is on their stores are not associated with the India's purported findings.

Bahuki

4/6/2015 09:44:18 pm

And that is why I still prefer FMF chow noodles most of the time, and Indomie as well. But understandable one might not know if this is inclusive of both noodle brands I mentioned although its happening in India.

rajend naidu

5/6/2015 08:01:48 pm

As with Maggie mega stars also appeared with FIFA . That did not make FIFA clean did it? In fact FIFA was rotten to the core but the big name stars and celebrities, and even political leaders aligned themselves to FIFA to promote their own self interests and FORTHE MONEY!
It's the same with Maggie. Money talks!

rajend naidu

5/6/2015 09:25:36 pm

Nidhi Dutt from NDTV who reported this lead contaminated Maggie noodle story also reported on the one year assessment of Indian PM Narendra Modi' in office after his " rock star " tour to the US and Fiji following his resounding electoral victory. She reported for many ordinary Indians, especially the poor, nothing has change on the ground . In the Indian political landscape the euphoria has a tendency to evaporate fairly rapidly.
If Modi fails to deliver on his promises of clean government and clean India and economic prosperity his support is likely to disappear. Maggie noodles has disappeared from many retail outlets in India . They are not waiting around for a court resolution of the Maggie noodle crisis and the most certainly are not buying the assurance given by the Nestle corporation.

Saheed K.

6/6/2015 06:12:36 am

all meats in shops and market must be halal and governed by Fiji Muslim League.

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