The Bombay High Court Tuesday allowed the Indian arm of multinational food giant Nestle to export Maggi noodles to other countries.
The move came after Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) informed Justices V M Kanade and B P Colabawalla that if Nestle was claiming that its product is safe then it could go ahead with the export.
Justifying its stand, FSSAI lawyer Mehmood Pracha said, “An impression was being given that Nestle was the only company being targeted.”However, he made clear that action has been initiated as well against three more companies which have exceeded the permissible limit of lead. “It has been widely covered in news also,” he mentioned.
Nestlé’s counsel Iqbal Chagla thereafter sought a clarification in the order regarding the export while he informed that 17,000 crore packets of Maggi had been incinerated till now and another 11,000 crore packets are in the stage of recall. Chagla said the entire process of recall will be over soon while seeking an extension on the time limit to complete the whole process.
The case has been posted on July 14 as it will be heard finally. Both Nestle and FSSAI have filed their affidavits.
The High Court had earlier said Nestle was any way in the process of recalling its variants and FSSAI could initiate action on Nestle after giving a 72-hour notice to the company.
Nestle had earlier argued that CEO of FSSAI, while passing the order on June 5, had acted in an ‘emergent, drastic and arbitrary’fashion while raising doubts over his jurisdiction. The food regulator had not served any notice before passing the order of ban, Nestle continued its argument.
“Before asking them to ban the product, there ought to have been a mention of injury or risk to health by the company,” Chagla argued. Therefore, he pointed, merely by claiming there was a quality issue, the order could not have been passed.
He reminded that the company has been operating in India for 30 years besides having a worldwide reach. It’s a worrisome for its credibility as children are being told that they are consuming poison, Chagla stated.
The FSSAI ordered Nestle India to withdraw all nine variants of Maggi instant noodles from the market terming them ‘unsafe and hazardous’for human consumption. The company has been given 15 days to reply to a show-cause notice asking why approval for all these products should not be withdrawn.
A manufacturer of Nestle products told The Indian Express on anonymity that around 11,000 employees had been rendered jobless after all six factories of Nestle India shut down.
“Around 27,020 tonnes of Maggi has been destroyed. The FSSAI should have selected four centers two in India and two abroad and conducted tests. On finding the product unsafe, they should have asked us to leave. Nestle is the only multinational which has invested and has been manufacturing products in India. All others outsource,” he said.
