Technoglitch
Core Member
Sometimes our government straps on its armour and goes into battle on our behalf, all guns blazing.
This is such a time. And the great enemy of the people is a packet of 2-minute noodles.
The Maggi wars are heating up all over the country. A map of India in The Telegraph shows the various battlefronts helpfully colour-coded in red (banned for now), orange (partial ban/warning), blue (tests ongoing) and green (cleared). As in banned in Delhi for 15 days, warning issued in Karnataka but cleared in Chandigarh. The Indian Army has asked its personnel not to consume Maggi. And the retail giant Future Group, the biggest buyer of Maggi, is taking off its shelves. The Haryana government has conducted raids. Assam CM Tarun Gogoi is asking health officials to get cracking. The Aam Aadmi Party-led government in Delhi has summoned Nestle India officials to discuss safety practices.
As Ashim Sanyal COO of Consumer Voice tellsFirstpost, "Why is it restricted to a single brand? The government should get other products checked and ensure that the companies must follow national standards laid down by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and Food Safety Standards."
Maggi is just a symptom of a much larger problem. Of course it makes sense to go after the company that is sitting on 70% of the instant noodles market. But that does not mean the other 30% are off the hook.
“I think we’ve just seen the tip of an iceberg,” says Venkatesh. According to Venkatesh while we might go into hysteria at the prospect of lead in our Maggi, the fact is there’s documented lead in “a variety of processed and raw food products such as chocolates, milk, vegetables, fish and water.”
Once lead gets into the water it can infiltrate the entire food chain. It’s only recently that some governments are restricting immersion of idols in our rivers because the paint has lead. Most of us have no idea how to dispose of used batteries and the very pipes that we use for plumbing could be leaching lead into our water. And it’s not even what we eat. A 2013 study by doctors in Kolkata showed that at least 20% of the city’s children were affected by lead poisoning via the paint on toys, cheap plastic mugs, cheap crayons cooking utensils, even the paint peeling on the wall. Children are more susceptible because they have smaller bodies.
The Centre for Science and Environment says in a 2008 studythey found that "the biggest and best companies had lead levels 180 times the voluntary standard." Most governments have tried to phase out lead in paints some 20 years ago. The New York Times’ Gardiner Harris’ child’s respiratory problems dramatically highlighted Delhi’s choking pollution and made much news. Lead wreaks havoc far more insidiously.
“We regularly monitor all our raw material for lead, including testing by accredited laboratories which have consistently shown levels in MAGGI Noodles to be within permissible limits,” says Maggi in a statement trying to exert damage control over the situation. Nestle claims it has submitted 600 product batches to an external laboratory for independent analysis and tested almost 1,000 batches in its own accredited laboratory. Those samples represent almost 125 million packets. In a way Nestle is trying to claim it is doing far more due diligence than the food inspectors themselves.
Cracking down on Maggi: In war over food safety, netas are the biggest culprits - Firstpost
This is such a time. And the great enemy of the people is a packet of 2-minute noodles.
The Maggi wars are heating up all over the country. A map of India in The Telegraph shows the various battlefronts helpfully colour-coded in red (banned for now), orange (partial ban/warning), blue (tests ongoing) and green (cleared). As in banned in Delhi for 15 days, warning issued in Karnataka but cleared in Chandigarh. The Indian Army has asked its personnel not to consume Maggi. And the retail giant Future Group, the biggest buyer of Maggi, is taking off its shelves. The Haryana government has conducted raids. Assam CM Tarun Gogoi is asking health officials to get cracking. The Aam Aadmi Party-led government in Delhi has summoned Nestle India officials to discuss safety practices.
As Ashim Sanyal COO of Consumer Voice tellsFirstpost, "Why is it restricted to a single brand? The government should get other products checked and ensure that the companies must follow national standards laid down by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and Food Safety Standards."
Maggi is just a symptom of a much larger problem. Of course it makes sense to go after the company that is sitting on 70% of the instant noodles market. But that does not mean the other 30% are off the hook.
“I think we’ve just seen the tip of an iceberg,” says Venkatesh. According to Venkatesh while we might go into hysteria at the prospect of lead in our Maggi, the fact is there’s documented lead in “a variety of processed and raw food products such as chocolates, milk, vegetables, fish and water.”
Once lead gets into the water it can infiltrate the entire food chain. It’s only recently that some governments are restricting immersion of idols in our rivers because the paint has lead. Most of us have no idea how to dispose of used batteries and the very pipes that we use for plumbing could be leaching lead into our water. And it’s not even what we eat. A 2013 study by doctors in Kolkata showed that at least 20% of the city’s children were affected by lead poisoning via the paint on toys, cheap plastic mugs, cheap crayons cooking utensils, even the paint peeling on the wall. Children are more susceptible because they have smaller bodies.
The Centre for Science and Environment says in a 2008 studythey found that "the biggest and best companies had lead levels 180 times the voluntary standard." Most governments have tried to phase out lead in paints some 20 years ago. The New York Times’ Gardiner Harris’ child’s respiratory problems dramatically highlighted Delhi’s choking pollution and made much news. Lead wreaks havoc far more insidiously.
“We regularly monitor all our raw material for lead, including testing by accredited laboratories which have consistently shown levels in MAGGI Noodles to be within permissible limits,” says Maggi in a statement trying to exert damage control over the situation. Nestle claims it has submitted 600 product batches to an external laboratory for independent analysis and tested almost 1,000 batches in its own accredited laboratory. Those samples represent almost 125 million packets. In a way Nestle is trying to claim it is doing far more due diligence than the food inspectors themselves.
Cracking down on Maggi: In war over food safety, netas are the biggest culprits - Firstpost
