Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on Monday approached the apex court, terming the High Court’s August 13 order as “erroneous” and questioned the sanctity of the samples provided for re-test to government-approved labs.
In its petition, FSSAI has contended that the High Court “erred” by asking Nestle, the Indian arm of the Swiss company itself, to provide the fresh samples instead of asking a neutral authority to do so.
Earlier, the High Court had quashed the orders of FSSAI and Maharashtra food regulator FDA, which had banned nine variants of Maggi noodles in the country. It had said that the principles of natural justice were not followed in executing the ban as the manufacturer was not given a hearing.
Patanjali Ayurved, the FMCG venture promoted by Baba Ramdev hopes to take on Nestle’s Maggi which has returned to the Indian market after a 5-month ban. In order to meet the product demand, Patanjali will set up five manufacturing plants in Delhi NCR, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh within a year. These plants will also make other Patanjali products.
“By the end of December, our noodles will hit one million stores. We are ramping our production capacity,” Ramdev told reporters here but did not specify investment details for setting up new plants.