Preventing Junk Food From Being Labeled Healthy

By Dinesh C Sharma, Metro India, May 24, 2015

The recall of Maggi noodle packets from markets in Uttar Pradesh has evoked a variety of reactions from people, particularly on social media. Some people believed it was a healthy snack – as claimed in television commercials – while others felt that street food kiosks and mithai shops with poor hygiene should also be taken to task just like Maggi. A lot of jokes were cracked about life of hostellers, single men and mothers of nagging kids without “two-minute” noodle brand.

“Maggi disappearing is less likely to have a positive impact and more an apocalyptic outcome, at least in India,” declared a journalist on a digital news website. Most of the public discourse on the issue focused on the brand itself and trivial concerns of it becoming unavailable. This successfully obfuscated real issues this episode has raised - food safety, marketing of unhealthy or junk food and growing influence of Big Food in our food chain.

First let’s get the facts of the case right. The recall of Maggi in Uttar Pradesh was large, involving some two lakh packets belonging to one particular batch manufactured in February 2014. Nestle, which owns the brand, claims that this batch had already reached its expiry or ‘Best Before date’ in November 2014, thereby implying that it is not be blamed for substandard quality.

About the detection of Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) in samples of Maggi noodles, the company says it does not add MSG to noodles but “authorities may have detected glutamate which occurs naturally in many foods.” The food company has not been able to provide any convincing explanation about elevated levels of lead in a pack of Noodles analysed by food safety authorities.

Read full story here in Metro India