Maggi row: The man who unraveled the ugly truth behind India’s favourite 2-minute snack

Mumbai: The reputation of Maggi, the two-minute solution to hunger and a staple snack for millions of Indians for over two-decades, has hit rock bottom. As Nestle, the parent company, which manufactures the popular Maggi noodles, tries to allay fears and insist that the product is absolutely 'safe for consumption', the consumers aren’t willing to place their trust on the erstwhile favourite brand anymore.

While the controversy rages on, we take a look at who and what caused the fall of Maggi.

A routine check of food samples by a Food Safety Officer, Sanjay Singh, in Barabanki, which is close to Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, revealed the ugly truth of Maggi. Singh was on a routine check of popular food samples collected from local shops.

Hailing from Lucknow, Singh holds a MSc in Organic Chemistry from Lucknow Christian College, and did his PHD in Chemistry from Lucknow University. He joined the Food Safety Office in 1998 and had been appointed as the Food Safety Officer in Barabanki since 2013.

In a telephonic interview to indiasamvad.co.in, Singh said that he picked items randomly and not with any particular bias towards any manufacturer. The reports that came from the laboratory at Gorakhpur took Singh by surprise. He couldn’t believe that Nestle, which was a brand millions of Indians trust, could commit such grave errors that would endanger the health of consumers.

Singh initially thought that the error in the report was a typographical one. When Nestle was informed about the irregularities, they challenged the tests and demanded a fresh test in the Central Food Laboratory in Kolkata.

To be sure of his findings, Singh sent the Maggi samples he had collected from the nearby shops as well as a popular supermarket to the Central Food Laboratory in Kolkata. The results were still the same when the test was conducted at the laboratory in Kolkata.

The reports that emerged took the nation by storm. High content of lead and Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) was present in all samples of Maggi that were collected.

The Rs 1300 crore market of Maggi noodles was hit hard and how.

MSG is used in the food industry as a flavour enhancer with a taste that intensifies the meaty, savory flavour of food, as naturally occurring glutamate does in foods such as stews and instant noodles. MSG has been labeled an excitotoxin because it is thought to have the ability to overstimulate cells to death. Many people link headaches, flushing, poor attention and other symptoms, as well as diseases like fibromyalgia, to MSG intake.

The reports could have emerged earlier had the postal service not committed a blunder by sending the Maggi noodles samples to Shimla instead of Kolkata. No special attention was given to the case and it was treated as a regular file that moved along governmental procedures.

Singh said that the case was registered under Section 59. (1) with the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate. The penalty for the offence is imprisonment up to six months and a fine of Rs 1 lakh.