Top Ramen follows Maggi off the shelves

NEW DELHI: The noodle industry in India has found itself tied up in knots again after the central food safety regulator FSSAI on Monday ordered Japanese noodle maker Indo Nissin to withdraw its Top Ramen brand of instant noodles from the market.

This comes at a time when the Indian food industry has hit the panic button with large multinationals having to withdraw popular products from the shelves due to food-safety and regulatory issues. 

Earlier this month, Swiss food giant Nestle had recalled around 30,000 tonnes of its instant noodles brand Maggi due to excess lead content and mislabelling of monosodium glutamate (MSG) content on its packs. Subsequently, Hindustan Unilever (HUL) withdrew and stopped production of its Chinese range of Knorr instant noodles because of pending product approval with FSSAI. American cafe chain Starbucks stopped using certain ingredients in its products not approved by the regulator.

Indo Nissin's product approval for Top Ramen is pending with FSSAI, according to Gautam Sharma, MD, Indo Nissin Foods, the Indian arm of Japan's instant noodle maker Nissin Foods Holding. "On 8th June FSSAI had come out with the advisory on product safety testing of all instant noodle products in India. At that time, we had sought clarification from FSSAI since Top Ramen's product approval is pending with the regulator. They have requested us to withdraw the product until they give the product approval. We hope to get the approval soon from FSSAI and be back in the market" he said.

Sharma said while many Top Ramen samples have been tested by various state FDAs across the country, only in two cases - slightly higher lead level has been found in the tastemaker. "We are meeting the state FDAs and sharing our test results with them as well as seeking a re-test," he said. 

The company had applied for product approval in 2013, according to people familiar with the matter. "Ideally, it should take FSSAI a few weeks to give its approval. Two years is a really long time. I wonder what took them so long. There are around 3,000 product approvals pending with them at present. And nobody in the food industry wants to question them now. Everybody is scared," said a senior executive of a large FMCG company. 

However, consumers seem to be bearing most of the brunt. After hearing about the Top Ramen recall, an executive with a Gurgaon-based MNC said, "Not again! What are we supposed to eat then?"