Maggi tests by bonafide lab: Regulator

The food safety regulator on Tuesday said there was no issue over the bonafides of the institution that conducted the tests on Maggi noodles in Kolkata and that the prescribed norms were followed.

The issue cropped up after reports that the lab that purportedly conducted the Maggi tests in Kolkata did not have the necessary accreditation when it gave its report to the regulator.

"Yes, I agree that Central Food Laboratory (CFL) in Kolkata conducted the tests. But thereAwere others as well," Yudhvir Singh Malik, chief exective officer at Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) told IANS.

"But I cannot disclose anything more," Malik added.

In the gazette notification issued by the authority on Dec 2 last year, CFL was among the laboratories accredited with it. But the laboratory's name did not figure in the subsequent notification of April 1, 2015.

Accordingly, as per reports, if the tests results were handed over to the regulator after April 1 this year, then it would have been done so by an agency that did not have the requisite sanction.

Asked for his response, Malik said: "The tests were performed as per the norms. That's all I can say."

The issue of food safety has been in the news since late last month, following which the food safety regulator on June 5 ordered the recall of all the nine variants of Maggi noodles with tastemaker after receiving adverse lab reports.

Some laboratories to which the Maggi samples were sent to not only found higher-than-permissible levels of lead, but also high amounts of mono-sodium glutamate.

Nestle, during its presentation before the regulator on June 4, had faulted the testing protocols followed by the labs and contended that they also had not been interpreted properly.

It also said the packets tested by the Kolkata lab were open for a long time.

(Muhammad Zulqarnain Zulfi can be contacted atAmohammad.z@ians.inAand Bhavana Akella can be contacted at bhavana.a@ians.in)

Indo-Asian News Service

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