Maggi effect: Hindustan Unilever recalls Knorr range; 19 others may follow

Better late than never. This hackneyed saying is holding much significance as far the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India is concerned. Set up in 2011, it took four years for the authority to make its presence felt. And now, it is really making waves. The authority to check safety aspects of food items made a splash in April when it raised red flag about the Maggi brand of noodles from Nestle India, a market leader in the segment. The controversy over the excessive lead content and wrong labelling of the brand snowballed and the company has now recalled the product from the market. The authority also directed the company to recall Maggi Masal Oats Noodles, which was being sold without getting approval from it. [caption id=“attachment_2290096” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] But now it seems, it’s just not Maggi Masala Oats. Close to 20 popular brands will have to be recalled from the market as they all are being sold without requisite approval from the FSSAI. According to a report in The Telegraph citing state food safety officials, these brands include Ching’s Secret, Top Ramen and Hindustan Unilever’s Knorr. The FSSAI had on Monday put out a list of 33 products that it had given approval for. The directive had also asked the officials to “recall, remove from the market, and destroy” the products that are not in the list. The newspaper said it asked for more clarifications about the products that did not make the cut to which the FSSAI revealed the list of 20 brands. According to a PTI report, Hindustan Unilever has, meanwhile, decided to recall its Chinese range of ‘Knorr’ instant noodles from the market. “HUL has decided to stop production and sale of its Chinese range of instant noodles till such time as its application is approved by FSSAI. HUL is initiating a withdrawal of its Chinese instant noodles from the market,” HUL said in a statement. It, however, made it clear that “the discontinuance of manufacturing and sale of Chinese instant noodles is not on account of any safety or quality concerns.” HUL said it had submitted an application with FSSAI for product approval for the Knorr Chinese range of instant noodles in February 2015 and the same was pending approval. HUL’s Chinese range of Knorr instant noodles are available in two flavours of Hot & Spicy and Schezwan in the market. According to a statement from Capital Foods cited in The Telegraph report, the company has applied for the approval and waiting for a response from the FSSAI. Food industry executives, meanwhile, are contesting the contentions of the FSSAI. They say the companies have been made to wait endlessly to get approvals, while the authority is sitting on dozens of applications. A report in The Indian Express yesterday had noted that companies start selling products before they get approval from the FSSAI. The report cited food safety officials as saying that since 2011 the FSSAI had to “evaluate hundreds of applications” from various companies and these companies released these products in the market before they get approval. With inputs from PTI