Letters: Maggi - A moot question

Apropos the report "Maggi issue wake-up call for food companies: CSE" (May 27), for ages, Nestle's Maggi has been the first choice for all age groups in India. But recently, it has come up against problems and critics from the Uttar Pradesh food safety regulators, who claim that the Maggi samples collected in the state contain traces of lead and monosodium glutamate (MSG) beyond the permissible limit. This is not the first time Nestle has landed in trouble because of Maggi. Even earlier, the nutritional content of Maggi had been constantly under the scanner throughout the world.

In India alone, Maggi has a whopping market share. A consumer - by law - has the complete right to know the "correct" ingredients of a product he buys. But it seems like Nestle has remained silent all these years. Health experts claim MSG to be equivalent to slow poison and associate it with several fatal diseases. But the moot question is that if such conditions prevail in a regularised market where MNCs such as Nestle exist, then what would be the condition in unregulated markets?

Ankita Kalia Chandigarh

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