MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Monday asked Whether FSSAI has authority to impose nationwide ban and Whether Maggie is a proprietary product under Sec 22 of FSS Act, 2006 which requires prior approval from the regulator.
Nestle India which is arguing against the June 5 ban brought on by FSSAI after it said 30 out of 72 samples tested positive for excess Lead, said the water used during testing could have been impure.
Senior counsel Iqbal Chagla who represents Nestle along with senior counsel Amit Desai questioned the quality of water used during the tests done as he said they were by unaccredited laboratories whose results can't be accepted. "Accreditation of labs is vital under the Act itself," said Chagla who expanded on the argument that lack of accredit ion is a flaw in the testing itself. Besides he said 2700 tests show that Maggi is safe and for 30 long years there was not a single complaint from inspectors. "And now suddenly one Inspector in Gaziabad speaks of high MSG and the sample is sent to the Kolkata referral lab whose notification expired this March before the test" he said.
Ban on Maggie is just on the basis of levels of Lead and when all variants have product approval except Oats, the ban on the basis of few samples in "mindless and arbitrary and unjustified."
"The water used during testing might contain high levels of Lead. They should have ensured that the water was pure," said Chagla.
Calling the ban as a violation of the Food Safety Act, Chagla in his day long submissions said, "Maggie can't be termed unsafe or injurious to human health as per the definition of unsafe and substandard food given in FSS Act, 2006, itself." He said, " FSSAI must decide whether Maggie is unsafe or substandard," and added that the regulator has violated its provisions of natural justice and having tested only three variants out of nine it could have at best placed a ban on a particular batch and not the entire product range.
"The authorities not empowered to impose this ban under the FSS Act, 2006," said Chagla promoting the court to ask if the regulator could impose a national ban on the popular 2-minute Maggi noodles.
The Maharashtra government had followed the FSSAI order with its own ban within the state on sale of the snack packets the following day in June 6. Others States did too.
The HC has not stayed the ban and the company has destroyed over Rs 600 crore worth of goods already even as it battles the ban in court.
The matter will continue to be heard on Tuesday when the FSSAI and its Ceo through their counsel Anil Singh and Mehmood Pracha make their case in favour of the ban.
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