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No clean chit to Maggi, says food safety watchdog
New Delhi, Aug 5
India's food safety regulator
on Wednesday said Nestle India has not been given a clean chit regarding
its popular Maggi noodles and that its ban order of June 5 was still
operative despite a certified lab in Karnataka reportedly finding the
snack to be safe.
"It is clarified in the first instance that
FSSAI has not given any clean chit regarding the safety of Maggi
Noodles," the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India said in a
statement, reacting to reports that a laboratory in Mysore had found the
samples to be safe.
The watchdog also said that Nestle India has
not shared with it the details of the test reports from the UK and
Singapore, which purportedly had said that samples of Maggi noodles
tested in those countries were found to be safe for consumption.
The
statement said that the Food Safety Department of Goa had drawn five
samples of Maggi noodles pursuant to a May 25 communication issued by
the watchdog to all safety commissioners across the country.
These
samples, were initially sent for testing to the Food and Drugs
Laboratory of Goa and upon examining the reports received on June 1, it
was found that the permissible limit of lead had been wrongly taken 10
parts per million, against 2.5 parts per million, it said.
The
results reported by the lab also did not specify the actual lead content
in the samples after which clarifications were sought from the state's
food safety authority.
"The Food Safety Department of Goa
subsequently sent one part of the said samples to the Central Food
Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore where the lead has been
found to be within permissible limits," it said.
"But a perusal
of the test results from CFTRI, Mysore shows that the said samples have
not been tested for MSG (mono-sodium glutamate)," it added.
"In
any case, the test results of Goa samples had no bearing on the order
dated 5th June, 2015 as the samples tested qua Goa were not assumed to
be unsafe while passing the recall order by FSSAI. As such, the present
test reports do not have any bearing on that order."
The
statement also sought to clarify that out of five units where Nestle was
manufacturing Maggi noodles, only one at the Bicholim in Goa was
catering to exports to eight countries. It also said four out of the
five samples taken by Goa for testing were from this factory.
Asked
for the response regarding the reports from Goa, a Nestle spokesperson
said the company had only received information on the matter via media
reports that a lab approved by the food safety authority had found Maggi
noodles to be compliant with the standards.
"The matter is
sub-judice and we cannot comment further," th spokesperson added. The
reference was to the ongoing hearing in the Bombay High Court.
Maggi
noodles had been banned on June 5 after allegedly high amount of lead
and MSG were found in the samples. Following that, Nestle withdrew all
the variants of the noodle, while continuing to maintain that its
products were safe.