Nestle Maggi: The Controversy Surrounding Maggi Noodles

Nestle Maggi: The controversy surrounding Maggi Noodles

Introduction:

At the end of May 2015, Nestle received an order from India’s Food Safety administration (FDA) to recall and destroy its popular 2-minute Maggi Noodles after a few tests showing presence of higher levels of lead beyond the permissive limits. Has Maggi broken food laws? Is it harmful for you? Will it bounce back in the market? Would Nestle be able to Leverage the crisis and Gamble on the Indian Market? The following case tries to explain the controversy over India’s favorite instant noodles, how the situation developed, and how the company reacted.

Background & situation:

VK Pandey, an officer of the UP Food Safety and Drug Administration based in Barabanki ordered tests on a few dozen samples of Nestlé’s Maggi instant noodles. The state laboratory in Gorakhpur tested for monosodium glutamate (MSG) to check Nestlé’s claim that Maggi had none. The Central Food Laboratory in Kolkata, a referral lab, in addition to MSG, also found “very high quantities” of lead — 17.2 parts per million — according to UP authorities. Rendering to the rules, the upper limit on leas is 2.5 parts per million (ppm). UP FDA filed a case in the Barabanki court against Nestle Maggi based on the above findings.

Nestle India retaliated by quoting that as stated on their products, they do not add MSG in Maggi. The main ingredients of Maggi were hydrolyzed groundnut protein, onion powder and wheat flour, which all contained glutamate. They expressed their feelings that the authorities might have detected glutamate, which is natural in many foods. It added that the company had submitted samples from almost 600 product batches to an “external laboratory” for an “independent analysis”, but did not identify the lab. It also said it had conducted in-house tests on 1,000 samples which represented around 125 million packets at its accredited laboratory. The results indicated the lead content to be within limits specified by food regulations.

This has been the overall debate where both the parties are taking standpoints but the hitch here what Nestle needs to understand is, the mutilation this controversy is doing on the company’s brand image. As the saying goes, the bigger you are the harder you fall. What began as a routine inspection of Maggi samples has developed into a storm that has led to the vanishing of two-minute noodles from the shelves of stores across the country.

Impact & viewpoints:

After having a look at the situation and the position of Maggi in the Indian market, a need arises to now look from different viewpoints.

Initially, the government stuck to its rule of