The Maggi fiasco reflects poorly on the government. Unless steps are taken to repair the damage, faith in the regulatory system is bound to be further eroded. We cannot imagine that the authorities were so callous, so cynical as to damage a carefully nurtured brand of noodles. While we hold no brief for Nestle India, the owner of the famous instant noodles brand, we cannot help comment on the grave infirmities in the official case. The authorities plunged headlong to ban the brand without pausing for a moment that their rough and ready action might militate against all cannons of justice and fair play. The chronology of the case against Maggi began with a food inspector in a remote district of UP collecting a random sample and subjecting it to a lab test. That was in early May last year. The lab finding, it was claimed, found monosodium glutamate in Maggi. A notice was served to Nestle. Nearly a year later, Food Safety and Drug Administration, UP, ordered recall of the sample batch and a case was filed against Nestle, India. Soon other States got into the act, banning the popular noodles whose commercial ambassadors were some of the biggest stars of Bollywood. Indeed, there was talk of proceeding against Amitabh Bachchan and others who had been associated with the brand promotion. Nestle was forced to withdraw the noodles from all over the country. Its brand was under attack and it could not allow it to be damaged further. Some 30,000 tonnes of the noodles were slated for the incinerators, though the case that these were all contaminated with excessive monosodium glutamate became untenable by the day. After a challenge in the Bombay High Court, Nestle was allowed to export the noodles made in India. Earlier, Singapore, with some of the most strict food safety laws on its statute book, declared India-made Maggi noodles safe for human consumption. Indeed, the US Food and Drug Administration too certified Nestle’s instant noodles safe. No excess lead was found in Maggi. But here in India, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs launched a class action suit, seeking Rs. 640 crore in damages. This is the first ever class action suit to be filed against anyone in the country. Though the pioneering suit might be welcome for no other reason than that a much-needed lacunae in jurisprudence could be met, but a wrong case was picked up to make an example of Nestle. In fact, from the above reiteration of events leading to the blanket ban on Maggi, it would seem that Nestle is the wronged party. Overzealousness of the UP food inspectors who were competing with one another to take credit for having `found’ lead in Maggi triggered the controversy. This has a bearing on the country’s image for failing to put in place a stable and reliable regulatory system. The fact that we still lack modern food testing laboratories is also acknowledged by the Minister for Food Processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal. The articulate minister while welcoming the Bombay High Court order lifting the ban on Maggi lamented the lack of transparency and clear-cut protocols for the food processing industry. Haphazard testing by inspectors in ill-equipped labs can ruin a brand’s image. In this case, Nestle was made to put up with a lot.
In the initial stages, the UP FDA went hammer and tongs against Maggi, giving media interviews and claiming that it might have saved millions of children from health damage. They did not care for a repeat test from another reputable lab before condemning Maggi as bad for consumption. Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan will compound the wrong against the company by persisting with the class action case. Following the Bombay High Court order on Thursday, which charged the national food regulator with arbitrary action unheeding the principles of natural justice, there is no ground for filing the class action suit. Nobody in his right mind can defend spurious foodstuffs or contaminated packaged foods. But, at the same, recklessness in proceeding against food companies without a valid reason must be avoided. At a time, when India is keen to woo foreign investors, when the Government is exerting its energies to put in place a fair and transparent regulatory system, the Maggi episode reflects poorly on all the people involved who had rushed to ban it. Hopefully, the FDA would not repeat the blunder.
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