Maggi is safe, reiterates Nestle CEO even as FSSAI orders recall of all 9 variants

After announcing that it was pulling instant noodles Maggi off the store shelves in India even as state governments across the country imposed bans on it, Nestle Global CEO Paul Bulcke said they had withdrawn the product due to the confusion among consumers in the country. Bulcke flew in from Switzerland to take stock of the situation following Maggi was banned in states such as Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, among others. “We felt unfounded reasons resulted in confusion and the trust of consumers was shaken,” Bulcke said in a press conference in Delhi today. Nestle’s global chief executive promised to win back the trust of Indian consumers and work with food safety authorities to get its popular Maggi noodles back on the country’s shelves “as soon as possible”. The press conference coincided with the central food safety regulator FSSAI ordering recall of all nine approved variants of Maggi instant noodles from the market, terming them “unsafe and hazardous” for human consumption. Reiterating that the company’s instant noodles are safe, Bulcke said: “We apply the same quality standards and methods in the world here in India too. Our tests have found that Maggi is absolutely safe.” He said the company is cooperating with authorities in India by sharing tests methodologies to find how lead was beyond permissible limits in tests done by authorities in its efforts to “bring Maggi on the shelves as soon as possible”. The company declined to share details of how many batches and packets it is withdrawing from the market and how much it would affect its sales in India. “Our main focus is to win the trust of customer,” Bulcke said. Late last evening Nestle India decided to take Maggi off the shelves after a controversy erupted over its contents, prompting several states to ban the ‘Two-Minute’ noodles. He even defended the presence of mono-sodium glutamate in Maggi saying it could occur due to the presence of other ingredients in the product but said the company did not add any during the course of production. [caption id=“attachment_2281342” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Nestle CEO Paul Bulcke. AFP image[/caption] “We will take off ‘No MSG’ from label so that there’s no confusion about it,” Bulcke said. The global CEO of Nestle said that the company had been testing the instant noodles since the controversy over the presence of lead and MSG had erupted but they had not found any evidence of either exceeding permissible limits. Bulcke said that the company’s priority now was to engage with all stakeholders “to clarify he situation”. While he did not dispute the methodology used by Indian food laboratories to test the noodles for lead and MSG, they would engage with authorities on it. “The tests we have done have found no lead. So we are trying to engage with the authorities regarding the test methods they have used,” he said. He also said that the company hadn’t been able to analyse the findings of the test results. “We will share with full transparency all our test results. This is result of some confusion and we have to resolve it,” Bulcke said. Nestle has submitted samples of Maggi noodles from almost 600 product batches to an external laboratory for independent analysis. “These samples represent around 125 million packets. We have also tested samples from almost 1,000 batches at our own laboratory which is accredited by the authorities. All the results of these internal and external tests show that lead levels are well within the limits specified by food regulations and that Maggi noodles are safe to eat,” Nestle said on its website. But even as Buckle geared up for damage control, the FSSAI  served a showcause notice to Nestle and asked it reply within 15 days as to why the product approval given to it on the nine variants should not be withdrawn. “The company is further directed to submit a compliance report in this behalf within a period of three days and furnish progress reports on the recall process on a daily basis thereafter till the process is completed,” the order issued by Y S Malik Chief Executive Officer FSSAI said. FSSAI said that Nestle had applied for product approval for Maggie Oats Masala Noodles with Tastemaker in July last year on which certain clarifications were sought by the food safety regulator on safety and risk assessment. “What is disturbing to note is that the company had already released the said product in the market without completing the process of risk assessment and has been promoting its sales,” the order said. The order termed this as “illegal” and a “serious violation” of FSS Act Rules and Regulations. According to a report by Reliance Securities, the general sense is that if Maggi loses share because of bad publicity, the number 2 and number 3 players in instant noodle space, ITC and Nissin, respectively will gain market share. With inputs from Agencies