Maggi Noodles, children’s favourite two-minute comfort snack, is in a soup with mothers chucking it out of their kitchen cabinets. Triggered by the nationwide health scare regarding its content of lead and monosodium glutamate (MSG), sales of the snack have registered a 50 per cent dip in Vijayawada’s shops and supermarkets.
“Yes, there’s been a sharp decline in sales of Maggi noodles. Families who used to carry home several packets are avoiding it altogether,” said Bilal, the manager of Modern Super Market on Besant Road.
Food giant Nestle India’s Maggi noodles have been subjected to scrutiny ever since food officials in Uttar Pradesh found that it contains MSG and lead in amounts exceeding permissible limits.
After lab reports confirmed that the samples of Maggi noodles they tested were found ‘unsafe’, Delhi banned the product for 15 days while the Kerala government has removed the brand from State-run outlets. While Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala reacted immediately by opting for sample testing, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana both followed suit on Wednesday.
“We received samples of Maggi noodles from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana today,” said A. Krishna Kumari, Deputy Chief Public Analyst, Directorate of Institute Preventive Medicine, Hyderabad. “We’ll start the analysis tomorrow and it will take at least five days for the result to be known.”
With the MSG alarm spreading fast, the spotlight has also shifted to other instant noodle brands. Even roadside food vendors selling ‘Chinese’ noodles at busy centres in the city have been hit. Complaining that the throng around their food cart has thinned since yesterday, most of them were unable to comprehend why.
Monosodium glutamate, commonly known as ajinomoto, is one of the main ingredients of Chinese foods.
Excess consumption of MSG is known to promote sluggishness, headache, nausea, increased thirst and chest tightness.
The scare started when V.K. Pandey, a 40-year-old Barabanki-based officer of the Uttar Pradesh Food Safety and Drug Administration, collected samples of Maggi from a store on March 10 for tests to determine whether the manufacturer was complying with its stated claim that the product doesn’t contain any MSG.
Even since, the two-minute ‘pack of goodness’ has been swiftly disappearing from the shelves of stores across towns, cities and states.
Andhra Pradesh joins a growing list of states rushing Maggi Noodles to food safety tests
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