Noodles taken off shelves for tests

Supermarkets have withdrawn Nestle Maggi noodles from the shelves after the Consumer Federation of Kenya (Cofek) issued a directive to recall the product for analysis.

A spot check by the Nation yesterday at Tuskys, Nakumatt and Naivas supermarkets in the city centre revealed that the outlets had already heeded the directive.

Through their official twitter account, Nakumatt informed its followers that it has “voluntarily” decided to withdraw the brand of noodles from its shelves.

“In public interest, we wish to confirm that we’ve embarked on a voluntary withdrawal of all India manufactured Maggi Noodles,” it wrote.

Nakumatt’s regional strategy and operations director, Mr Thiagarajan Ramamurthy, said that the move to withdraw the brand of noodles was necessitated by customer and public concerns.

Product has not been banned

“We are liaising with our local suppliers, as we seek to reassure our customers. Further updates on the matter will be provided in due course,” said Mr Ramamurthy, in a statement sent to the Nation.

A spokesman for Nakumatt, Mr Alfred Ng’ang’a, insisted that the product has not been banned in the country and therefore, they (Nakumatt) withdrew it on their own volition.

“No competent authority has confirmed that the product is not suitable for consumption; no one has also said that the noodles should be removed from the shelves.

“Therefore, we have taken a voluntary first step to withdraw the product,” added Mr Ng’ang’a.
Other supermarkets were not immediately available to comment on the matter.

Concerns about the Nestle Maggi noodles, a staple food made from unleavened dough which is cut into one of a variety of shapes, came up after Cofek demanded that Kenya Bureau of Standards order the recall of noodles from supermarkets until a thorough analysis of the product is made.

LEVELS OF LEAD

The demand by the consumer watchdog followed revelations by the Food Standards and Safety Authority of India (FSSAI), that the product exceeded permissible levels of lead and contained monosodium glutamate that is unmentioned in the ingredients’ list.

Last week the FSSAI issued a series of orders to Nestle, including withdrawing nine versions of its Maggi instant noodles, from the shops.

But, according to Nestle India’s online site, http://www.nestle.com/aboutus/ask-nestle/answers/maggi-noodles-india, the noodles are safe for consumption.

“Nestlé India has tested around 1,000 batches of Maggi noodles in our own laboratories and also asked an independent lab to test an additional 600 product batches.

“These tests covered batches totalling 125 million packets of noodles in total. These tests found that levels of lead in the products were within the food safety limits specified by the Indian authorities,” reads information on the site.

However, the manufacturer says that the growing concerns about the product made it necessary to take the product out of the market.

“Recent developments and growing concerns about the product have led to confusion for the consumer to such an extent that Nestlé India felt it was necessary to take the product out of the market while we engage closely with the regulators and others to discuss the situation,” it said.

The food group Nestle withdrew all Maggi noodles from sale across India following a food scare after some states banned the product over excess levels of lead.

Earlier, Nestle Kenya had stated that all of its products in Kenya have pre-export verification of conformity (PVoC) from the Kenya Bureau of Standards, guaranteeing the products’ safety.