After Nestle obtained official clearance for Maggi Noodles, union minister of consumer affairs Ram Vilas Paswan finds himself in the hot seat and having much explaining to do on charges that he took a hasty step in ordering the ban on Maggi Noodles which has cost Nestle a colossal loss of over Rs.600 crore in sales.
Despite Nestle pleading that the laboratory tests on Maggi Noodles were questionable and rejecting requests for a review, Paswan reportedly went ahead in ordering Maggi out of the shelves.
Now that Maggi Noodle is back with a bang, after recent tests show that the lead content was well within the safety limit, there are voices demanding to know why Paswan ignored the pleas for more tests.
Maggi Noodle was banned after the June 5,2015 order of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and a similar order by the Maharashtra Food and Drug Authority (FDA) directing it to withdraw all variants of the noodles, citing the presence of excessive lead. However
The Bombay High Court on August 14,2015 set aside the countrywide ban on nine variants of Nestle’s Maggi instant noodles, saying the national food regulator had acted in an “arbitrary” manner and not followed the “principles of natural justice” while banning the product. The court, however, ordered Nestle India to conduct fresh safety tests on the product before relaunching it.
Interestingly, a recent sting operation carried out by India Today, exposed the whole fraud of food tests being done when food inspectors in UP were caught on tape agreeing to pass a product despite having high lead content for some money. The Maggi ban, which now has been laid at the doorstep of Paswan appears to have given rise to speculations that he had hastily ordered the ban after Nestle for reasons best known to him.
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