NAINITAL: The food safety department of Haldwani has registered four cases, including two of misbranding, against multinational food major Nestle's Maggi noodles in the court of the chief judicial magistrate of Nainital district.
Misbranding means not mentioning all the ingredients found in the product on its packaging.
The department had allegedly found traces of lead and some other ingredients not declared on the packaging of Maggi samples it had picked up from Haldwani and Ramnagar in May last year.
V S Bisht, food security officer of Haldwani circle, told TOI: "Four cases have been registered against the MNC and the owners of shops from where the samples were picked up."
Action was initiated after a report confirmed the presence of undeclared ingredients, in November last year. Asked what took them so long to file the cases, officials said a lot of paperwork was involved.
Bisht said two cases were registered on May 25 under Section 59 of Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 as monosodium glutamate (MSG) was found in some of the samples; two more cases were registered in the ADM's court under Section 52 of the Act for 'misbranding'.
The department claims "objectionable" amounts of undeclared artificial colour and flavour were traced.
Responding to TOI's email query on the charges, a Nestle India spokesperson said, "We have not received any court notice with reference to details mentioned in your email."
He claimed that the safety of Maggi noodles had been confirmed by tests carried out in independent accredited laboratories, and traces of MSG were found as glutamate is a naturally occurring substance in food products.
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