Maggi row: More states join the ban bandwagon

NEW DELHI: A day after banning Maggi noodles, food safety regulator The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on Saturday said it will test samples of instant noodles across brands. FSSAI said it will also examine branded pasta and macaroni products. “We will check all other instant noodles brands as well. We are drawing samples of other noodles brand,” FSSAI chief executive Yudhvir Singh Malik said.

While he did not name the brands, popular products include ITC’s Sunfeast Yippee, HUL’s Knorr and Nissin Foods’ Top Ramen and Wai Wai from Nepal’s Chaudhary Group. On Friday, FSSAI had banned all variants of Nestle India’s Maggi noodles, terming them as “unsafe and hazardous” for human consumption.

On Saturday, Maharashtra food and drug minister Girish Bapat announced a ban on the sale of Maggi after lab tests proved the presence of lead above the permissible level in the samples tested. In the northeast, Tripura has banned Maggi noodles while Meghalaya has sent samples for testing, an official release said on Saturday. In Arunachal Pradesh, the Food Safety Commissioner has directed all distributors, wholesellers and retailers of nine Maggi variants to recall them with immediate effect.

In Dimapur, the Nagaland government asked people not to buy Maggi noodles till further orders.