Nestle tells Bombay HC that Maggi test results cannot be relied upon

The point was made during presentation of final arguments today on the matter concerning Maggi's recall and ban. Nestle will continue making its arguments on 20 July

The country's largest food company by revenue, Nestle India, on Friday presented its final arguments in the matter concerning the recall and ban of Maggi noodles. The matter is being heard by a bench headed by V M Kanade and B P Colabawalla in the Bombay High Court.

Nestle's counsel Iqbal Chagla said the Maggi tests were done by laboratories not competent enough to do so.

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Chagla said, "The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, specifies laboratories be accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) for carrying out tests to detect lead. Moreover, they should be competent enough to carry out tests on cereals and spices and that they should be notified under Section 43 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. The laboratories whose tests were relied upon by the Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), however, did not meet this criteria."

INTO THE NOODLE BOWL

• The country's largest food company by revenue, Nestle India, on Friday presented its final arguments in the matter concerning the recall and ban of Maggi noodles
• Nestle's counsel Iqbal Chagla said the Maggi tests were done by laboratories not competent enough to do so
• Chagla told the court the laboratories lacked accreditation
• Nestle India is nearing completion of what is considered the country's biggest FMCG product recall

Tests were conducted by state laboratories across the country, including those in Pune, Vadodara, Rajkot, Delhi and Kolkata. Chagla told the court the laboratories lacked accreditation, many of them not notified under Section 43 and they were not competent to carry out the tests. "That the regulator relies upon these tests to issue a ban is of serious concern. These reports are not worthy to be accepted on account of these loopholes and cannot be relied upon," Chagla said.

Chagla said even if the test results relied upon by the FSSAI were taken into account, 30 of 72 results had found Maggi had lead in excess of the permissible limit.

 "Specifically, only three variants of Maggi were found to have lead higher than the permissible limit. This includes masala, chicken and veg atta. What was the need to ban all nine variants of Maggi? This when we had said that we would withdraw Maggi voluntarily from the marketplace. Besides, we had also indicated that the issue of mislabelling pertaining to monosodium glutamate (MSG) would be corrected. The regulator acted with haste, which has caused loss of goodwill as well as loss of turnover... 25 per cent of our turnover comes from Maggi and it is a snack that is popular with one and all, including college students and housewives," Chagla said.

The matter will be heard on July 20, after which the judgment will be pronounced on a separate day.

Nestle India is nearing completion of what is considered the country's biggest FMCG product recall. So far, around 25,000 tonnes of Maggi noodles have been sent to 11 cement plants for destruction. Nestle has pegged the total inventory to be destroyed at nearly 30,000 tonnes, a revision from the earlier 27,420 tonnes it had estimated. Value-wise, the loss on account of the recall and destruction has been pegged at Rs 320 crore.

More importantly, the ban and recall saw $200 million shaved off Maggi's brand value (Brand Finance pegs Maggi's current brand value at $1.2 billion), prompting the company to move the Bombay High Court last month.