Why Maggi was banned?

The multinational food and beverage brand Nestle is facing the heat as Maggi was being banned across different states of the country and others in line to execute the same.

The latest is that the sale of Maggi noodles is banned in Delhi for the next 15 days. As a result of it, the retail outlets have taken them off their shelves and also will not be available in the Indian Army canteens.

Why?

With everyone coming to know the news of the trending subject, many might not aware of the things that led to this - it is not only LEAD.

According to officials who first took up the fight against Maggi said the flavor enhancer monosodium glutamate (MSG) was not being listed among the ingredients. The MSG could cause harm if used above the permissible limit. However, Nestle claims that MSG was found "safe to eat" in an external laboratory. 

It was V K Pandey and his team who started it all with a "routine check" on March 2014 in Barabanki, UP, where they collected samples that confirmed the presence of MSG. 

Lead above permissible limit

"The maximum permitted amount of lead can be 2.5 parts per million (ppm), but in the samples, it turned out to be 17.2 ppm, which made them unsafe,” said Ram Araj Maurya, additional commissioner (administration), UP Food Safety and Drug Administration Department.

How lead got into food

While it is still a mystery how Maggi was contaminated, the Wall Street Journal reports industrial and automobile exhausts might release heavy lead content into the air and soil. 

According to the United States’ Food and Drug Administration, "lead in soil can be deposited on or absorbed by plants, including plants grown for food" and once it is on food it “cannot always be completely removed by washing or other steps.”

Water used to process the noodles could have been the contaminating factor in Maggi's case, says Uday Annapure, associate professor of the department of food engineering and technology at the Institute of Chemical Technology in Mumbai.

On some cases, the food could be contaminated by the packaging used. 

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