Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on Monday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay High Court’s order that set aside the countrywide ban on Nestle’s popular Maggi noodles.
The food authorities had earlier deemed Maggi products unsafe for consumption and the Maharashtra government had accused the company of not complying with the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.
The SLP comes a week after Nestle India’s popular instant noodles made a comeback — five months after the company was banned from selling the product in India for allegedly containing lead beyond permissible levels.
Nestle India last week launched Maggi in 100 towns through 300-odd distributors.
However, FSSAI on Monday challenged the HC order terming it erroneous and questioned the “sanctity” of the samples provided to the government-approved labs for the re-test. It contended that the HC made a mistake bay asking the company itself to provide the fresh samples instead of asking a neutral authority to do so.
The HC had in August ruled that the national ban on Maggi, by the central food safety regulator, was violation of the principal of natural justice and struck down the order passed by the FSSAI. But keeping in mind public interest and health, it had ordered the re-testing of Maggi samples within six weeks in three accredited labs.
It had directed the company to send five samples of all its variants to accredited laboratories, situated at Hyderabad, Mohali and Jaipur to check the lead content in the product.
Earlier this month, Nestle informed that tests conducted on fresh Maggi samples provided to government approved labs were found safe and retail sales would start shortly.
An Uttar Pradesh government order recalling Maggi noodles for containing excessive lead in May triggered a chain reaction across the country. In June, the company had announced withdrawal of the Maggi noodles, incurring a one-time removal cost of Rs 451.6 crore.
A day later, FSSAI ordered the company to recall its products. Nestle India later withdrew about 30,000 tonne of popular instant noodles from the market.