The Bombay High Court on Thursday questioned the ban on all nine variants of Maggi noodles when only three were tested.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) said that three variants of the product were tested and found to have lead in excess of the permissible limits.
“Correct, so ban those three. You banned all nine,” a Division Bench of Justices V.M. Kanade and B.P. Colabawalla remarked. When the food regulator defended the ban saying the authorities did not want to take a risk, the Bench said: “If that is the argument, why ban only Nestle? Ban all the noodles.”
The court also asked FSSAI why a show-cause notice on the ban was not issued to Nestle India. “Your show-cause notice is about the revocation of product approval. Out of 72 samples which were tested 30 had excess lead. That means 42 samples were clear. So was it not necessary to issue show-cause before passing an order of ban? If one batch is bad, you will ban the entire product?” the court asked.
Adverse results
The FSSAI maintained that the decision to ban the whole product was based on adverse results from many States. Furthermore, since Maggi was eaten by children, unlike other products such as alcohol or ‘gutka’, the authorities decided to ban the product to avoid any risk.
Serious consequences
“Lead can cause serious damage to the brain and kidney. Serious consequences were considered before passing the order. Ultimately we could not have taken any risk to allow them to sell or manufacture the product,” Additional Solicitor-General Anil Singh, representing the FSSAI, said.
He pointed out that Nestle had started withdrawing its products from the market a day before FSSAI passed its order of June 5, 2015, terming Maggi noodles “unsafe and hazardous for human consumption.”
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