Relief for Nestle, Bombay HC sets aside food regulator’s ban on Maggi

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Thursday struck down the food safety regulator’s order of a nationwide ban on sale of Nestle India’s popular 2-minute Maggi noodles.
A division bench of Justice V M Kanade and Justice Burgess Colabawalla allowed the petition filed by Nestle challenging a June 5, 2015, ban imposed on the manufacture and sale of Maggi noodles after samples tested allegedly for high lead content.
The court said that the "principles of natural justice" and procedures were not followed. The court also pointed out that a show-cause notice was not issued before the ban. The HC also said that the samples were not tested at accredited laboratories raising doubts on the results.
However, in public interest, the court asked the company to submit five samples of its nine variants of noodles to three accredited laboratories, before Nestle is allowed to manufacture the noodles. The court said that if the content of lead is found within permissible limits then they can go ahead with the manufacture and sale.
According to FSSAI, 30 out of 72 samples of the popular Maggi noodles had tested positive for dangerously high levels of lead and even MSG, despite packets proclaiming ‘no added MSG’. FSSAI had alleged that Nestle had "failed to adhere to its own declared policy and principles".
The company on its part had claimed that the ban was "unauthorized, arbitrary, unconstitutional for violating right to equality and trade” and had violated the principles of natural justice as it had not been given proper hearing.
Nestle claimed that its own tests had reported that the Maggi noodles were safe for consumption and none of the countries where it sold the product, including in the UK, Australia and Singapore any problems had been reported