The drama was written in almost two minutes: a big-shot food giant caught in the red, got penalised for selling hazardous stuff to Indians. And as is the nature of popular discourse when a big MNC is involved, the two minute script remained pretty much unchallenged till now.
The twist came on August 13: The Bombay HC ordered fresh testing on Maggi in three government accredited labs (Mohali, Jaipur and Hyderabad) and termed the nationwide ban on Maggi as “untenable”, “arbitrary” and said it violated the “principles of natural justice”.
The big question – if food inspectors of seven countries, including the US FDA, UK, New Zealand, Singapore, Canada, Australia and Vietnam found no trouble with Maggi and even the court doesn’t trust the previous results, was FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) grievously wrong about Maggi this whole time?
Has Nestle Been Wronged?
In its hearing, the Bombay High Court clearly said that the all India ban on Maggi was based on test results of labs which were not even accredited!
In June, two Indian labs, in Goa and Mysore cleared Maggi, but still chose to ban the product “because other states had banned it”! The FSSAI conveniently dismissed these findings, saying there were lapses in the tests.
Consider the opposite: if a food product was found to contain large quantities of lead, but was not banned by anyone else despite knowing it had the toxic lead in it - would the government have used the same logic to say no one else has banned it so we will not ban it either?
FSSAI which deemed Maggi “unfit” and has found detergent in Mother Dairy Milk, larvae in Nestle’s baby milk powder, is actually highly ill-equipped, short staffed and works on outdated machinery itself. And we’re not saying this, it comes from the admission of a former Director of the Central Food Laboratory in Kolkata.
The Delhi test results which snowballed into most states banning the noodles was outsourced to a private lab. Delhi with a population of 18 million did not have the technology, expertise or even accreditation to do the job in time!
The Delhi state food laboratory, set up 37 years ago, is a level-1 laboratory out of three levels recognised by the FSSAI. It has only three chemists, who can perform tests to trace the presence of chemicals, but not of microbial toxins, heavy metals or pesticide residue, all considered critical for food safety tests.
So if India’s own food regulation doesn’t meet scientific and public accountability standards, how could they inculcate an “environment of fear” in the food sector?
Should Nestle Be Compensated if Results Come Negative?
Six states banned Maggi after the Delhi results, much before the FSSAI even ordered for a nation-wide ban. With the Bombay HC resorting to harsh words like, this is against the “principle of natural justice”, the food regulator has received a massive setback and it now has some major explaining to do.
Since the controversy, for the first time in 15 years, Nestle clocked a quarterly loss of Rs 64.4 crore, compared to a profit of Rs 288 crore in 2014.
The hullabaloo cost Nestle its reputation, financial loss, and an emotional disconnect with generations of Indians who grew up snacking the two minute noodles. To top that, the Centre recently filed a case against the company, seeking Rs 640 crore in damages for alleged “unfair trade practices, false labelling and misleading advertisements”.
Legal experts say, for a compensation, the government will have to show that there has been an injury or some wrong or an act of negligence. So where are these people who fell ill after having Maggi? Is there a registered case of a pregnant woman taking a beating from the MSG in the noodles?
And in six weeks time, if the fresh results come negative, just like seven other countries with better testing infrastructure have proved, will the Indian government be held accountable for its actions?
Will the government compensate Nestle for its financial loss, image and brand rebuilding, and the money that it will now have to pump-in to get the product from the market shelf into your shopping cart again? Someone should definitely pay for such arbitrary and knee-jerk decisions, if Maggi comes clean.
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