UP food safety dept finds more noodle brands 'sub-standard'

Notices were sent to all the three companies a week ago giving them a month's time to make an appeal.

Months after Maggi storm, the Uttar Pradesh food safety department has found samples of some other instant noodle brands ‘sub-standard’ with ash content in the tastemaker exceeding the prescribed limits.

"The samples of Knorr Soupy Noodles, Horlicks Foodles Noodles and Ching's Hot Garlic Instant Noodles were picked up from a mall in the city in May last year for testing and its report was received about a fortnight ago," the Food Safety Officer of Barabanki district, Sanjay Singh, said.

The samples were sent to government Food Analysis Lab in Lucknow where it was found that ‘total ash of the tastemaker exceeds the maximum prescribed limits. . . hence the samples are sub-standard,’ Singh said.

Against the prescribed limit of 1 per cent, ash content was found to be 1.83 per cent in Ching's noodles, while in Foodles it was 2.37 per cent and in Soupy noodles it was 1.89 per cent, he claimed.

Notices were sent to all the three companies a week ago giving them a month's time to make an appeal, he said.

No immediate comments were received from the companies.    

To a question, Singh said the report did not mention the health hazards caused by ash content higher than prescribed limits.

Interestingly, the UP Food Safety Department in May last had found high lead content and presence of taste enhancer monosodium glutamate in samples of Maggi noodles.

Later in June, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India banned Maggi noodles, alleging that the instant noodles were ‘unsafe and hazardous’ because of higher than permissible lead content and presence of MSG.

Nestle had then pulled the product off shelves.

The instant noodle brand made a comeback in November after passing tests at three government labs, after which the Bombay High Court removed the ban.

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