More trouble for Nestle India: Days after Maggi fiasco, live larvae appear in baby milk powder

Already embroiled in a huge controversy over the quality of its high brand equity noodles ‘Maggi’, this could not have been a worse time for FMCG major Nestle India . A sample of the firm’s baby milk powder has reportedly tested positive for live larvae after a customer complained about it. Following the results, the milk powder has been declared unsafe by the Tamil Nadu Food Safety Wing. [caption id=“attachment_630836” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Nestle under scanner. AFP[/caption] The incident occurred after a taxi driver from Puliakulam, Coimbatore, K Prem Ananth, had purchased a 380 gm Nestle NAN PRO 3 carton to feed his twins. “Prem Ananth had already fed one of his 18-month-old children with the baby formula and was mixing a separate batch for the other twin when he stumbled upon live larvae in the milk powder."— said a report in The New Indian Express. Consequently, the baby who was fed with the formula had to be hospitalized due to a skin allergy. Although Prem registered a complaint with Nestle he was neither happy with the company’s offer to replace the product nor with their suggestion to test the product at a company certified laboratory. “Meanwhile, a report from analysts at the Food Analysis Laboratory, Coimbatore, confirmed that the 380 gm sample contained 28 live larvae and 22 Sitophilus oryzae (rice weevils)."— said a report in The New Indian Express. Prem had also given samples to the Tamil Nadu Food Safety and Drug Administration Department (Food Safety Wing) in Coimbatore for testing. The results conclude that the sample “does not conform to standards”. Trouble started for Nestle when food safety inspectors in Uttar Pradesh filed a criminal complaint against Nestle’s local arm after saying they had found high levels of lead in some packets of Maggi instant noodles. The Uttar Pradesh FDA had ordered a recall of a 2 lakh-pack batch of noodles at the end of April, after a spot check which it said showed elevated levels of monosodium glutamate (MSG), a flavour enhancer, and lead 17 times above the permissible limit.   Matters got worse today when a court in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district today ordering an FIR against the Maggi brand ambassadors Amitabh Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit and Preity Zinta. The court also directed the police to make arrests if required in the course of investigation. The order came during the hearing of a case filed by lawyer Sudhir Kumar Ojha on Monday. The petition has also named Nestle managing director Mohan Gupta, the firm’s joint director Sabab Alam in the FIR. Trouble started for Nestle when food safety inspectors in Uttar Pradesh filed a criminal complaint against Nestle’s local arm after saying they had found high levels of lead in some packets of Maggi instant noodles.