No Lead, No MSG in Maggi, says Nestle Global CEO Paul Bulcke
Nestle global CEO Paul Bulcke defends Maggi, saying the product is safe.
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The Nestle CEO strikes an emotional note.
India is important to us. We have been in India for over 100 years, we are a part of India. We are talking to the authorities. I don’t think there is any problem there.
– Nestle CEO Paul Bulcke
He also added that Nestle is not going to pull Maggi Noodles from shelves in the UK or any other country.
Nestle CEO said, “We haven’t found lead content in 1,000 Maggi batches tested internally,” adding to the clarification in the Maggi controversy.
Twitter of course, is abuzz with reports, hints and innuendo.
Nestle India says it has withdrawn all Maggi Noodles packets. More and more states have issued temporary bans. Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Chandigarh, Jammu & Kashmir, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Telangana and Assam have all banned Maggi.
According to this report on NDTV Profit, the controversy has wiped out almost Rs 10,000 crore from the company’s market cap in just five trading sessions.
Maggi is a big revenue generator for Nestle India, which reported a net profit of Rs 1,185 crore on sales of Rs 9,800 crore in 2014 calendar year. Maggi contributes around 22-25 per cent to Nestle’s topline and 30 per cent to the company’s profitability, according to Kotak Institutional Equities.
- NDTV Profit report
Nestle CEO acknowledges that consumers’ trust in Maggi has been shaken. “I am very confident that we will be back”, he says.
Sanjay Khajuria of Nestle India says,
We want to speak with the regulators to know what tests they have done so that we can get a report. We are trying to learn why there’s a difference in test results carried out in other labs and ours.
Nestle global CEO Paul Bulcke addressed the media on the issue of lead content and excess MSG in Maggi Noodles.
Highlights from his statement:
- Maggie is safe for consumption, we have the same quality standards everywhere in the world.
- Product quality and safety is of paramount priority for us.
- Keeping our consumers in mind, we shall work with the authorities.
- We do not add MSG (Mono Sodium Glutamate).
- We have temporarily withdrawn Maggi from the market.
- We don’t have any data on the third-party tests conducted on Maggi.