Maggi effect: More items under lens

Coimbatore:

Probe In Many Cases Still On, Experts Say They Can't Stand In Court Of Law

There has been a rise in food safety complaints since the Maggi controversy erupted in the country. The number of complaints has surged nearly four times since reports in the media appeared that Nestle's Maggi noodles contained lead beyond permissible limits.The rise could also be attributed to the marked increase in awareness among consumers, though there are possibilities that a few of the complainants may have been motivated to derive publicity .

Food safety department in Coimbatore has received 11 complaints between May 28 and June 23, compared with only three it usually gets every month. The complaints range for a number of products -from spurious milk peda and powder to spoilt bread and appalam. “In the last one week, we have received four formal complaints,“ said Coimbatore's designated food safety officer Dr R Kathiravan.

On Tuesday , a consumer i registered a complaint alleging that he found insects in a t packet of appalam bought f from a local store.

“Inquiries into these complaints are still on. Some of t the products have been sent to the lab for testing of their quality . In other cases, samples from the same batch of he product in question have been collected for testing,'' said a food safety officer.

“One complaint was about milk peda bought from a cooperative milk society without manufacturing date and max mum retail price, while another was about a loaf of bread bought exactly on the expiry date that got spoilt soon after,“ he said. People have also complained about nstant chapattis allegedly made using wrong preserva ives and milk powder, manu actured by a top FMCG company , containing worms.

These complaints were ei her made directly to the food safety officer, to the grievance cell at the collector's office or the chief minister's cell.

Food safety officers say many of these complaints are unlikely to stand in a court of law. “For example, in the case of the spoilt loaf of bread, the shop has a right to sell the product till the date of expiry.The consumer can't buy it on that day and bring it to us five days later,“ said a food safety official. “Similar was the case when a contaminated milk powder packet was brought to us 10 days after opening it,“ he added. State food safety commissioner Kumar Jayanth said the number of complaints have surged in Chennai too, though cities like Madurai have not witnessed a similar trend. (with inputs from Christin Mathew Philip)