MUMBAI: A bench of the Bombay high court comprising justices V M Kanade and B P Colabawalla asked Food regulator FSSAI to make a table for justification of action taken in banning the 2-minute Maggi noodles.
Additional solicitor general Anil Singh who represented FSSAI said, "The regulator has power to ban a product on grounds of reasonable doubts."
Singh said Sec 22 of the Food Safety Act prohibits sale of proprietary food without prior approval of the regulator. He said approval granted to Nestle for Maggi variants was on their application and information given.
The bench sought clarity on the interpretation of section 22. It asked, "Would traditional food like Samosa and Bhel need prior approval for sale. These can also be categorised as proprietary food as standards are not set for them also."
Justice Kanade also said, "alcohol should be banned immediately, going by the argument of proprietary and non-standardised food."
Unrattled, Singh replied, "Maggi is consumed by more people across age groups. Alcohol cannot be legally consumed by those under 21 years."
Defending its stance on the ban, Singh said, "if an officer have suspicion that any food has health hazard elements for human consumption, then appropriate action can be taken even in the absence of evidence ... we have collected samples from many states and we found the excessive Lead content," said Singh on Wednesday. He said it was the government's primary responsibility to ensure safe and wholesome food for human consumption.
Nestle had earlier argued that laboratories where Maggi was tested were not accredited and hence the test results unrealiable. However, the counsel said under the act the regulator can send to accredited laboratory only upon request of product manufacturer.
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