Amway asked to withdraw six products from market

NAGPUR: Following directives from the Food Safety and Standards of India (FSSAI) the state Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned the M/s Amway Enterprises Pvt Ltd to withdraw six of its products from the market in the state. These products were found to contain more than the permissible quantities of minerals and vitamins as per the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute for Nutrition (NIN).

In city, Amway has a warehouse in Wadi and a showroom in Eternity mall. "After we received a directive from Uday Wanjari from our headquarters FDA (Food) we issued a letter to the company here on January 30 to withdraw the six products within seven days, by February 6," said joint commissioner FDA (Food) in city S Desai speaking to TOI.

The FSSAI's 'product approval' committee had rejected these six products which include Nutrilite cal-mag-D, Nutrilite natural B tablets, Nutrilite Iron Folic tablets, Nutrilite Bio C, Positrim Vanilla and Nutrilite Kids Drink Mixed Fruit flavour as per a letter written by Sandhya Kabra, dated December 31, 2014 who is director of the approval committee. Amway had asked for approval from FSSAI as per a letter dated June 21, 2012. In reply to this letter Kabra's predecessor Pradip Chakraborty had written to Vinay Kumar of Amway at Delhi on May 23, 2013.

But apparently, despite many reminders, the company did not withdraw the products and therefore FSSAI has now asked for action against the company across the country. On Monday Mohd Shahid Sharif, president of Anti-Adulteration Consumer Society in the city raised the issue with the collector office on 'lokshai din' when common people's complaint are heard. "I produced a bill of some of these products from the Eternity mall outlet named M/s Micropark Infortrade of Rs1,164.00 dated November 6, 2014. I have raised the query how it was being sold in city under eyes of local FDA," he said.

Assistant commissioner of FDA (Food) NR Wakode, who too was present when Sharif said no one would be spared. But the administration will take action only after the warning period till February 6 is over. In Mumbai, however, the order for withdrawal was issued on January 28 while it reached Nagpur FDA on January 30. "We inspected both the Wadi and Eternity mall outlets and issued warnings in writing," said Wakode.