Dilip Shanghvi slams FSSAI on Maggi ban

Banning of Nestle's popular noodle brand Maggi by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) today came under harsh criticism, with Sun Pharmaceutical Industries' managing director Dilip Shanghvi calling it an unnecessary controversy created through arbitrary interpretation of regulations.

India should have helped industry to bring immense benefit to society, not scare away investment from business, Shanghvi said while citing Nestle's loss on account of the ban on its popular noodle brand by the country's food regulator.

 

Shanghvi said India could become a global food processing industry -- just as it had done in the pharmaceutical and software sectors -- from the current stage where 30 per cent of the foodgrains get wasted because of lack of proper storage among other facilities.

 

"For India to become a global player in areas such as food processing, what is required is a clearly defined regulatory framework and governmental help. (But) not by taking the investments away from business and industry by creating unnecessary controversies," Shanghvi said while addressing the Indian Management Conclave in Hyderabad.

He said there has been an immense potential to the country's food processing industry and some technology and other assistance would take it to the international scale.