Insects found in Maggi packets bought from city supermarket

The consumer, Janet Fernandes, an administrative executive with a city-based company, took the noodles for tests to a private laboratory in the city and they confirmed the presence of insects. “Minutes after eating a packet of Maggi veg noodles, I fell ill and had to be taken to hospital as I experienced severe abdominal pain and nausea and threw up several times. 

The doctors confirmed it was food poisoning,” Janet told DTNext. After being discharged, she was put on antibiotics and advised to eat something as she was on medication. 

“I reached back home around 12.30 am that night and as I live alone, I had no choice but to cook the second packet of Maggi too. That was when I noticed that it was infested with tiny black insects,” she said. Janet immediately took the noodles to an accredited laboratory for tests where they confirmed the presence of insects in the noodles. 

“We found the weevils floating in the boiled noodles that the consumer had given us for testing. There were a lot of them when the consumer submitted the sample in a sealed plastic container,” Saranya Gayathri, executive director of Parikshan, an NABL accredited laboratory told this paper. A copy of the report is with DTNext.

Janet then sent detailed email to Nestle authorities explaining her plight and provided both pictures, videos and photos of the packet. She had also provided the batch number (61450455KB) to the company. 

The packets were purchased from Nilgiri’s supermarket at Maduravoyal and the packets were manufactured in May 2016.

However, Nestle does not seem to be concerned by this potential health hazard. Nestle India Limited’s Area Sales Manager for Chennai, Naveen Shetty said that the company had taken the samples of the same batch numbers from the market and found them to be alright. 

“We want possession of the original packets, only then can we investigate the case further,” he said. However, Janet alleged that the company has put pressure on her to not pursue with the case. 

“They called the management in my company and tried to get me to drop the case. They even summoned me to their office and asked me to hand over the packet. But this is a serious issue, and I don’t want them to simply shrug off responsibility,” said Janet. 

In an official reply mail to Janet, Chitra Ahuja of Nestle Consumer Services said that Nestle factories in India had very strict policies for pest control that were managed by the Pest Control of India. 

When legal notice has been sent to Nestle India and Nilgiris by advocate Karate Karthikeyan.

It may be recalled that Maggi noodles were banned in India after the FSSAI authorities found high levels of lead in their noodles in June last year. 

Later, the Bombay High Court lifted the ban and Nestle relaunched the Maggi noodles in Indian markets.

In such cases of contamination, surely the consumer can get justice by invoking Section 20 of the Food Safety and Standards Act. There are also provisions of Consumer Protection Act that could be invoked but surely in this case, action can be taken against Nestle under the Food Safety and Standards Act, senior advocate Sanjay Pinto, who deals with consumer rights issues, said. He said the company cannot attribute ulterior motives against the complainant as the complaint has been lodged by a consumer and not by a competitor of Nestle.