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Jadbm.com Case Study

MAGGI SAGA IN INDIA: AN ETHICAL ISSUE OR UNCONTROLLED VIRAL MARKETING!

Saroj Kumar Sahoo1, Uma Sankar Mishra2, Sandhyarani Sahoo3

1Lecturer, PG Department of Business Administration, Sambalpur University, Jyoti Vihar, Odisha, India.
2Associate Professor, Department of Business Administration, IBCS, Faculty of Management Sciences, Siksha O Anusandhan University,

Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.

3Assistant Manager, ICICI Bank, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.

ABSTRACT
Nothing happens by the angels movement in the corporate houses, except some natural calamities. Either it is a planned action
or exploitation of opportunity as or when it comes. It seems that Nestle has clearly inculcated this truth and hence took the ethical
issue in the way of viral marketing! In another way it may be understood that Nestle failed to anticipate the Indian legal issues and
legal procedures for food products. At the end, Maggi although suffered a lot for its sales and revenue, it could have gained a mileage
for the future. That is why, even by higher price than the past; there is a very good response to the Maggi noodles from the market
after its re-launch. So it remains a question to every company/analysts/researchers nowadays that is there scope to take positive
mileage from the legal & ethical issues relating to the food products in Indian markets?

KEYWORDS
Maggi Noodles, Nestle, Legal & Ethical Issues, FSSAI, MSG & Lead Component in Noodles.
HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Sahoo SK, Mishra US, Sahoo S. Maggi saga in India: An ethical issue or uncontrolled viral marketing!.J.
Advances in Bus. Management 2016;2(3):140-145, DOI: 10.14260/jadbm/2016/33
INTRODUCTION
The Real Test of Maggi Noodles Taste
"We felt unfounded reasons resulting in confusion and the
trust of consumers was shaken, hence decided to withdraw the
Maggi noodles from the market, but we apply the same quality
standards and methods in the world, here in India too. Our
tests have found that Maggi is absolutely safe"- said Paul
Bulcke, the global CEO of Nestle in a press conference in
Delhi[1] (Economic Times, 5th June 2015). These statements
reflect the degree of wariness of the global CEO, Nestle
regarding the Maggi noodles in the worlds largest potential
market, India. This above said press conference coincided with
the central food safety regulator (FSSAI), which ordered
Nestle-India to recall of all nine approved variants of Maggi
instant noodles from the market, terming them "unsafe and
hazardous" for human consumption. This nightmare news of
Nestle broke-out on Uttar Pradesh FDA's findings, while filing
a case in the court of law in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Subsequently various states of India like Delhi, Gujarat, Kerala,
Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Odisha, Tamil-Nadu, J&K, Uttarakhand,
Bihar, Assam, Maharashtra banned the Maggi noodles with
various test reports and other states are on the line to ban the
Maggi noodles. Even Indian army notified its personnel not to
take Maggi noodles. After such issues, union health minister,
India Mr. J P Nadda said that his ministry had received reports
from all states and assessed them and We have come to the
conclusion that the food safety & standards have not been
adhered to by Nestle company for Maggi products and that is
why we have given instructions that all nine products
(variants) should be recalled from the market (details in
Financial or Other, Competing Interest: None.
Submission 01-07-2016, Peer Review 04-07-2016,
Acceptance 30-07-2016, Published 08-08-2016.
Corresponding Author:
Uma Sankar Mishra,
IBCS, Faculty of Management Sciences,
Siksha O Anusandhan University,
SUM Hospital Road, Kalinga Nagar,
Ghatikia, Bhubaneswar-751003,
Odisha, India.
E-mail: connectumal123@gmail.com
DOI: 10.14260/jadbm/2016/33
Table-1). The wariness of company can be understood easily
by looking at the performance of Nestle-India and Maggi
noodles, which is in question-mark after recalling noodles
from market and stopping its production, because many states
of India banned the famous '2-minute' instant food after tests
showed them containing taste enhancer MSG (Monosodium
Glutamate) and lead in excess of permissible limits. However,
a small relief for Nestle India was that West-Bengal state
government had not taken any action as no objectionable
found with five tests that had been conducted on the product
in central as well as state laboratories, according to the opinion
of said state government.[2]
About Nestle & Nestle India
Nestle, a Switzerland company was founded in 1866 by Henri
Nestle in Vevey, Switzerland. Employees around 3,39,000 in
factories, operations and other business activities in almost
every country (197 countries) in the world are working. The
company has 442 factories in 86 countries. Nestle sales for
2009 were 108 billion Swiss francs (CHF) and 91612 million
CHF in 2014. Operating profit was 15.3% of sales in 2014.
Going to the history of the Maggi product, in 1870 the Swiss,
Julius Michael Johannes Maggi (1846-1912) inherited family
business, a mill in Kemptthal, near Zurich, wanted to engage
the factorys women workers to prepare a quick nourishing
soup and hence Maggi product started its journey. The
company has product portfolio of most of the food & beverage
category and claiming to give consumers tastier and healthier
products to enjoy at every eating occasion and throughout
lifes stages. The brands under various product category are
Cerelac, Gerber, Gerber Graduates, NaturNes, Nestum (Baby
foods); Nestle Pure Life, Perrier, Poland Spring, S. Pellegrino
(Bottled water); Chocapic, Cini Minis, Cookie Crisp, Estrelitas,
Fitness, Nesquik Cereal (Cereals); Aero, Butterfinger, Cailler,
Crunch, KitKat, Orion, Smarties, Wonka (Chocolate &
confectionery); Nescafe, Nescafe 3 in 1, Nescafe Cappuccino,
Nescafe Classic, Nescafe Decaff, Nescafe Dolce Gusto, Nescafe
Gold, Nespresso (Coffee); Buitoni, Herta, Hot Pockets, Lean
Cuisine, Maggi, Stouffer's, Thomy (Culinary, chilled and frozen
food); Carnation, Coffee-Mate, La Laitire, Nido (Dairy); Milo,

J. Advances in Bus. Management/eISSN-2395-7441/pISSN-2395-7328/Vol. 2/Issue 03/ Jul-Sept. 2016 Page 140

Jadbm.com
Nesquik, Nestea (Drinks); Chef, Chef-Mate, Maggi, Milo,
Minors, Nescaf, Nestea, Sjora, Lean Cuisine, Stouffer's (Food
service); Boost, Nutren Junior, Peptamen, Resource
(Healthcare nutrition); Dreyers, Extreme, Haagen-Dazs,
Movenpick, Nestle Ice Cream (Ice cream); Alpo, Bakers
Complete, Beneful, Cat Chow, Chef Michaels Canine Creations,
Dog Chow, Fancy Feast, Felix, Friskies, Gourmet, Purina,
Purina ONE, Pro Plan (Petcare).
Nestle having its mission of "Good Food, Good Life" and
culture reflecting the ideas of fairness, honesty and long-term
thinking, entered in India in the year 1912 when it began
trading as The Nestle Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company
(Export) Limited, importing and selling finished products in
the Indian market. After India's independence in 1947, the
economic policies of the Indian Government emphasised the
need for local production.[3] Further Nestle set up its first
factory in 1961 at Moga, Punjab, India, where the government
wanted Nestle to develop the milk economy and later on
offered agricultural services to educate, advise and help the
farmer in a variety of aspects like increasing the milk yield of
their cows through improved dairy farming methods, to
irrigation, scientific crop management practices and helping
with the procurement of bank loans. Nestle India limited
introduced Maggi to the Indian consumers with the launch of
Maggi 2 minutes noodles, an instant food product in the year
1982. The Company's activities in India give livelihood to one
million people including farmers, suppliers of packaging
materials, services and other goods. Milk collection centres of
Nestle ensure prompt collection, fair prices and other such
sustainable business practices, which made Moga not only
into a prosperous and vibrant milk district today, but also a
thriving hub of industrial activity of India. The company
continuously focuses its efforts to better understand the
changing lifestyles of India and anticipate consumer
centralised research and development activities helping the
company to create value that can be sustained by offering
consumers a wide variety of high quality, safe food products at
affordable prices. Nestle India manufactures products of truly
international quality under internationally famous brand
names such as Nescafe, Maggi, Milkybar, KitKat, Bar-one,
Milkmaid & Nestea and in recent years the company has also
introduced products of daily consumption & use such as Nestle
Milk, Nestle Slim Milk, Nestle Dahi and Nestle Jeera Raita.[3]
Research and Development (R&D) in India is a part of
Nestle- S.A.s global R&D network and supports all markets
worldwide with new product development and manufacturing
excellence for Noodles. It is also a centre of expertise for local
Indian cuisine within the Nestle R&D network and offers
assistance to culinary, confectionery, nutrition and dairy
products in the South Asia Region (SAR). It has the new R&D
Centre in Manesar, and Nestle South Asia Region aims at
greater regional consumer focus. R&D centre in India reflects
the Nestle spirit of R&D-Business partnership towards
developing winning concepts, suited to the local consumer.[3]
The corporate business principle of Nestle has 10 major
dimensions of the company. They are nutrition, health &
wellness; quality assurance & product safety; consumer
communication; human rights in the business activities;
leadership & personal responsibilities; safety & health at
work; supplier & customer relation; agriculture & rural
development; environmental sustainability, and water.[4]
J. Advances in Bus. Management/eISSN-2395-7441/pISSN-2395-7328/Vol. 2/Issue 03/ Jul-Sept. 2016
Case Study
Performance of Nestle-India & Maggi Noodles
In 2014, an estimated 250, 000 tonnes of Maggi products were
sold in India. Nestle India's revenue from Maggi noodles is
around Rs 2,500 crores a year. The instant noodles make up
31.5 per cent of Nestle India's revenue[5]. Maggi commands
around an 80 percent share of India's noodles market in terms
of revenue (Source: 9th June 2015, Business standard). In one
hand, overall noodles market is growing continuously in India
and in other hand India is the second largest single market for
Nestles Maggi brand, with retail sales worth $623 million in
2014 across noodles, table sauces and other products,
according to Euromonitor International. And the prepared
dishes and cooking aids category contribute nearly 30% of
Nestle Indias revenue, according to a January 2015 research
report by French banking and financial services firm, Societe
Generale. Maggi in India is synonymous with noodles and
completely dominates the market with 63% share in 2014.
This means that the brand has a lot to lose, Lianne van den
Bos, a food analyst at Euromonitor, said in a note (details in
Figure-1 & 2, sources: quartz-India, www.qz.com).
The Facts Behind: Ethics or Over-emphasised
Promotional Activities
The mind-boggling point is that company strongly claiming
Maggi noodles are safe, still Nestle-India had to withdraw the
noodle product from the markets before going to the court of
law. Though this media-shy company never before publicly
put its self-investigated quality report, said (by the global CEO
in press conference, Delhi) that no lead found in 1,000 Maggi
batches tested internally, product quality and safety is of
paramount priority, we don't have data from any of the third
party tests conducted on Maggi noodles, with our consumers
in mind, we shall work with the authorities to clear this
situation, I am very confident that we will be back as soon as
possible, which is our prime objective. Further, the following
data can give a path to companys business intention in India.
Nestle is one of the biggest advertisers in India, spending over
Rs 400 crores on advertising a year. Its ad spends on Maggi
brand alone is near about Rs 150 crores. Company made the
top Indian celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit,
Preity Zinta as its brand ambassadors. Nestle India has
disclosed having spent Rs 445 crores on 'advertising and sales
promotion' in the year 2014, while the expenses towards
'quality testing' was less than 5 per cent of such amounts.
Similar has been the trend over the last five years, when the
'advertising and sales promotion' expenses ranged between
Rs 300-450 crores annually, while expenditure on 'laboratory
or quality testing' moved between Rs 12-20 crores. The
expenses towards employees have risen the most in the last
five years - up by about 75 per cent from Rs 433 crores in the
year 2010 to Rs 755 crores in 2014. The advertising and sales
promotion expenses have risen by 47 per cent from Rs 302
crores in 2010 to Rs 445 crores in 2014. In the same period,
the 'laboratory or quality testing' expenses rose by 45 per cent
from Rs 13 crores to Rs 19 crores. The company follows a
financial year ending December 31. The financial accounts of
Nestle India further shows that the expenditure towards heads
like 'travelling' and 'training' was higher than the same
towards quality testing. While travelling expenses have risen
by 27 per cent from Rs 54 crores in 2010 to Rs 68 crores in
2014, the training expenditure rose by 51 per cent from Rs 25
crores to Rs 38 crores in the same period, the expenditure
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Jadbm.com
towards 'market research' was; however, lower at about Rs 16
crores in 2014, up by about 69 per cent from Rs 9.7 crores five
years ago in 2010.[6]
The Aftermath: Affecting Nestle
There was an all-round attack on Maggi, starting from
government to the legal bodies and independent associations.
Government of India had filed for damages from Nestle after
this food scare involving reports of excess lead & MSG in Maggi
noodles, especially the 2-minutes Maggi that forced a
nationwide recall. "It's a serious matter concerning public
health and the law allows us to go for self- taken legal steps, or
legal actions, against erring entities," said one official in the
consumer affairs department of the food ministry. The claim,
made through the National Consumer Disputes Redressal
Commission (NCDRC), which has semi-judicial powers and
will decide on the merits of the case and the size of any
damages. Food safety and standards authority of India (FSSAI)
ordered not only to recall the Maggi noodles from market but
also to stop production of the same. Further, this regulator also
sought inspection of all brands of noodles, pasta and macaroni.
The Madurai bench of the Tamil Nadu State Consumer
Disputes Redressal Commission issued notices to Amitabh
Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit and Preity Zinta. This commission
also issued notices to CMD of Nestle India, to take samples of
the product for tests regarding the quality & safety of Maggi
noodles complying with Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.
Petitioner K. Manavalan, a city-based consumer rights activist,
wanted the forum to direct the actors not to promote the
product through advertisements containing "false
representations" about its quality and safety. The
commission's presiding judicial member J. Jayaram and
Member M. Murugesan said while passing interim orders to
stop sales on the petition. The commission directed the
designated officer of the deputy director of health services,
Madurai, to take random samples of Maggi noodles with
tastemaker from different shops and subject them to tests at
the appropriate laboratory. It directed the safety
commissioner and deputy director of health to file a test report
along with opposite parties' opinion regarding the safety of
consuming the noodles on or before June 18. The above said
consumer rights activist sought imposition of a fine of Rs 45
lakh on Nestle India and deposit the same in the consumer
welfare fund. FSSAI asked on 7th June to states to conduct
thorough tests on non-standardised food products such as
noodles, pasta, and macaroni made by seven manufacturers
and submit reports by 19th June.
The Nestle India stock has under-performed the
benchmark BSE Sensex in the few trading sessions (by 4th June
2015), falling 15 per cent owing to rising concerns on sales of
its key brand, Maggi noodles. Nestle India has seen its stock
plummet nearly 15% from around Rs 7, 000 levels on May 21
on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) to Rs 5, 940 levels in
intra-day trade on June 04, 2015, and the failing trend may
continue as the issue had not solved till this case-study
completion. Nestle India may not get insurance claims through
commercial general liability (CGL) policy, because this policy
is a standard insurance policy issued to business organisations
to protect them against liability arising from any bodily injury,
property damage or personal injury liability, and in the Maggi
noodle case only higher levels of some elements have been
found and no injury has occurred. The Economic Times
J. Advances in Bus. Management/eISSN-2395-7441/pISSN-2395-7328/Vol. 2/Issue 03/ Jul-Sept. 2016
Case Study
newspaper, 15th June 2015 issue put a news head line - worst-
ever branding crisis: Nestle India sees more than Rs 320 crores
hit from Maggi ban, which is the most critical point to think.
This is because; Nestle India said the estimated sales value of
the stock in the market was worth around Rs 210 crores. Rs
110 crores of Maggi noodles and related products in its
factories and distribution centre. Further, there will be some
additional costs, for example bringing stock from the market,
transporting stock to destruction points". According to Brand
Finance, an independent asset valuation consultancy, Maggi is
set to lose $200 million in brand value after FSSAI ordered
Nestle to recall all its variants.[7]
The Aftermath: Nestles Response
Nestle-India lost advertising inventory of about Rs 10 crores
due to Maggi recall despite its move to air commercials of
Nescafe or KitKat in all advertisement slots booked for the
instant noodles brand. The channels have been told to subtly
replace Maggi ads with Nescafe and KitKat commercials. The
company had stopped digital advertising for the Maggi brand
as well, including the social media. Companys business
intension (strategy) can be further examined by the fact that
Nestle India will eliminate low-margin products from its
portfolio in the coming quarters as the company rationalises
its products in order to improve profitability, said its
managing director, Etienne Benet. Company had already
withdrawn Nestle Eclairs, Nescafe Mild and milk sachets, as
they were low-margin and low-growth products. While Maggi
is also a low-margin product, the company has been increasing
its offerings of instant noodles under the Maggi brand.
Nestle-India told its employees not to take leaves unless
there is an emergency. Even those employees who had been
granted leave have been told to stay. The company employs
nearly about Nestle India's 7,000 employees, including those
working at its five noodles plants in Moga, Pantnagar,
Nanjangud, Bicholim and Tahliwal. Most of the executives of
Nestle-India were going through sleepless nights. I haven't
slept for more than two hours in the past fortnight". "It's been
all about non-stop work like plant visits, meetings, tests, future
strategies, decisions. Worse, we don't know what will happen
tomorrow"- a mid-level executive said, published in the
Economic Times on 9th June 2015.[8] Responding to the
biggest controversies in India, Nestle had to engage its entire
team into fire fighting, even the global chief executive Paul
Bulcke and executives from across the world, including
longest-serving brand head Shivani Hegde from Sri Lanka, to
manage the crisis. Hegde had been called back from Sri Lanka,
who had been given on the responsibility of head, Nestle-Sri
Lanka in February 2015 to restore the brand that she almost
created from scratch.
The aftermath: Other Industry, Economy & International
Singapore authority, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority
(AVA) have ordered local importers to temporarily suspend of
the sale of Nestle's Maggi noodles imported from India amid
reports that high lead content, which is 2.8 PPM to 5 PPM
(particle per million) in 14 of 27 samples in India that is above
the prescribed limit of 2.5 PPM. Presence of excess lead is
harmful for health. USA had rejected more snack imports from
India than any other country in the first five months of 2015,
according to the data on the United States Food and Drugs
Association (FDA) website (Source: Newspaper, Business
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Jadbm.com
Standard, 11th June 2015). The Canadian Food Inspection
Authority (CFIA) is conducting a food safety investigation for
the possible presence of lead in Maggi brand noodle products
imported into Canada by various firms from India. If affected
products are identified as part of the agencys ongoing
investigation, a food recall warning will be issued, said the
Canadian health regulator. Bahrain banned import & sales of
Maggi from India. Maryam Al Jalahma, primary care and public
health assistant under-secretary, Bahrain said that "The
Health Ministry has now ordered heightened vigilance at the
country's ports to ensure that no more of the Indian-
manufactured noodles enter Bahrain.[9]
The negative impact not only limited to the noodles of
Nestle, but also extended to all most all noodles manufacturers
as they were under scanner of FSSAI (details in table-2). The
Maggi fiasco may affect the overall food processing industry as
most of the processed foods are intended to be scrutinised by
FSSAI and various FDA of state governments. If it is so, then it
can be imagined the magnitude of bad impact on the economy
by looking these statistics. The National Accounts Statistics
2014 referred that the average annual growth rate of the
processed food sector for the five-year period between 2008-
09 and 2012-13 at a healthy 8.4 percent that is significantly
higher than the overall GDP growth rate of 7.1 per cent and
the manufacturing GDP growth rate of 6.6 percent for the same
period. Ministry of food processing industries has estimated
the size of the Indian food market at $191 bn (Rs 11, 84, 200
crores) and the sector, which is also the biggest employment
generator in the country accounting for 12.13 per cent of the
jobs created, followed by textiles (10.86 per cent), is central to
the governments plan to push manufacturing and generate
jobs (Details in figure -3 & 4) [10]. In the quarter ended 30th
September 2015, Nestl Indias profit fell 60% from the year-
ago period to Rs. 124.2 crores on account of lower sales. The
net profit came back to Rs. 64.4 crores loss, the lowest during
last 15 years.[11]
Maggie Come-back
On October 26, Nestle had said that it has resumed
manufacturing Maggi noodles and they will hit the markets
after getting clearances from food testing labs. Initially, after
re-launch, Maggi noodles (12 packs, 70 grams, 144 rupees) on
Snapdeal, the e-commerce website [12]. However, according to
the above report, these noodles were available in 8 states of
India. On 9th November 2015, Nestle had re-launched Maggi
noodles in the market as the Bombay high court had lifted the
ban on nine variants of the fast food on dated 13th August 2015
and asked the company to go for fresh tests.[13]
Within a week of Nestles Maggi noodles returning to the
market, the countrys apex food regulator FSSAI has moved
the supreme-court against the Bombay high-court order that
had allowed re-launch of the noodles and that it had
questioned the credibility of the latest tests as samples were
drawn from Nestle. It should be noted here that Maggi cleared
the first set of tests on October 16 which allowed Nestl India
to start manufacturing the product and second set of tests on
newly manufactured batches also declared the products as
safe for human consumption [14]. In the meantime, national
consumer disputes redressal commission (NCDRC) ordered
twice (15 October and 10 December 2015) for testing of
several samples of Maggi noodles and the central government
has filed a class action suit before NCDRC against Nestle,
J. Advances in Bus. Management/eISSN-2395-7441/pISSN-2395-7328/Vol. 2/Issue 03/ Jul-Sept. 2016
Case Study
alleging unfair trade practices, false labelling and misleading
advertisements by the firm. By this suit, it has sought Rs. 640
crores of compensation. However, supreme-court stayed the
proceedings before the NCDRC and directed for fresh testing
of Maggi product in Mysore lab and the said court decided to
make the hearing of the case along the case filed by FSSAI[13].
Even after getting some reports from Mysore laboratory,
supreme-court on 14th January 2016, asked more clarification
from the concerned lab and the matter was posted to 5 th April
2016 by the supreme-court and there was no interim order by
the time this case-let is completed. On re-launching 7, 20,000
units of Maggi noodles (12 packs) were sold through
Snapdeal with 60,000 units (welcome kit). These welcome
kits consist of a Maggi calendar-2016, a Maggi fridge magnet,
Maggi postcards and a Welcome Back letter. As a whole, 45
million packs of the popular snack within two weeks of its re-
launch and the company is selling the noodles only in 200, 000
retail outlets across 600 cities and towns. It has a reach of 3.9
million retail outlets.[11]
Should it find a place in the Indian Consumers Mind?
It is not only the situation of Nestle India, but also similar trend
could be seen at other such companies as all of them spend
huge sums on brand promotions and have the provision of
very less fund for quality inspection. Even the quality
inspection is not a regular managerial practice to some of the
companies, which make the Indian consumer more conscious
and make the companies more accountable. But should not
every single consumer try to find the answer of questions
Whether FSSAI wakes-up only when somebody else wants to
find the truth?, whether ministry tries to accomplish its
formalities only?, should not be Indian consumers educated by
the companies? Who will bear the cost of those customers who
have purchased a lot before the matter broke-out and in which
procedure?, In which way company should deliver its social
responsibility towards those customers who are consuming its
Maggi noodles regularly being the brand loyal and finally, how
company can ensure every noodle packet is destroyed from
those which are recalled & dumped (Picture-1 & 2)? These
questions may be answered by examining the following facts.
The FSSAI issued an order only when countrywide anger
came out over the dangerous levels of lead and monosodium
glutamate reported in Maggi noodles. According to Yudhvir
Singh Malik, chief executive of the FSSAI, the regulator had
issued licences for such products without thorough testing
because facilities in the country were not adequate and the
licences will be delayed. Further, he said the Food Safety and
Standards Act, 2006, make manufacturers responsible for
maintaining food and safety standards, which is based on the
concept of self-compliance.
Sl.
Date Issues
No.
FDA of UP order recall of a batch of
30TH April
1 about 0.2 million packets of Maggi
2015
noodles due to excessive lead or MSG.
Concerned union minister, Mr. Ram
25TH May
2 Vilas Paswan reviewed report of
2015
higher MSG in Maggi noodles.
Govt. asked FSSAI to do an enquiry of
29TH May
3 quality issue of Maggi noodles. FSSAI
2015
collected more samples.
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Jadbm.com Case Study

Bihar court orders FIR against Mr. Sl.

Company Product (s)
Amitabh Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit, No.
2ND June
4 Preity Zinta (celebrities associated Maggi Nutri-Licious, Pazzta with
2015
with the advertisement of Maggi) and Test Maker (4 variants), Maggi
1 Nestle India
two officials of Nestle. Instant Noodles with Taste Maker
3RD June State owned retail out-lets of Kerala, (9 variants).
5
2015 banned selling of Maggi noodles. Sunfeast Yippee Instant Noodles
2 ITC
Delhi banned selling of Maggi noodles ( 3 variants)
for 15 days. Glaxo-
4TH June Indian Army issued advisory to its Smithkline
6 3 Foodles noodles (10 variants)
2015 personnel not to eat Maggi noodles. Consumer
Gujarat banned selling of Maggi care
noodles for one month. Indo Nissan
4 Top Ramen Atta Masala
5TH and Tamil-Nadu, J&K, Uttarakhand, Bihar Foods
7 6TH June & Madhya Pradesh banned selling of C G Foods
5 Wai Wai Noodles (3 variants)
2015 Maggi noodles. India
Nestles global CEO, Paul Bulcke 6 AA Nutrition Yummy Noodles (2 variants)
addressed the press conference in
Ruchi
5TH June Delhi by defending the Maggi quality. 7 Koka Instant Noodles
8 International
2015 Then the company voluntarily
decided to withdraw Maggi-instant Source: FSSAI
noodles across India. Table 2: Noodle of Suspicion
FSSAI issued order to Nestle to (Packaged foods that are under FSSAIs Lens)
5TH June
9 withdraw all variants of Maggi
2015
noodles from the market.
7TH June Govt. did seek damages from Nestle
10
2015 after the noodle scar.
Nestle had gone to Bombay High
11TH June
11 Court appealing a judicial review of
2015
FSSAIs order of banning its noodles.
The Bombay High Court declined
appeal of Nestle, which has sought a
judicial review of FSSAIs order of
banning its top-selling nine variants
12TH June
12 of Maggi instant noodles on health
2015
issues. The court issued notice to
FSSAI and other respondents and
posted the matter for next hearing,
June 30.
13th Bombay high court had lifted the ban
13 August on nine variants of the fast food of the
2015 Nestle India
16th Maggi cleared the first set of tests,
14 October which allowed Nestl India to start
2015 manufacturing the product.
Nestle had re-launched Maggi
9th
noodles in the market through
15 November
Snapdeal, an e-commerce
2015
organisation.
Table 1: Issue(s) relating to Maggi noodles
Note-1
FSSAI refers to Food Safety and Standards Authority of India;
FDA refers to Food & Drug Authority of India. MSG refers to
Monosodium Glutamate.

Note-2
The next hearing of honourable court has not come till this
case-study completion, so details can be referred from other
sources.

Sources
News of Economic Times, 9th June 2015[8], Business standard,
12th June 2015.[15]

J. Advances in Bus. Management/eISSN-2395-7441/pISSN-2395-7328/Vol. 2/Issue 03/ Jul-Sept. 2016 Page 144

Jadbm.com Case Study

REFERENCES
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J. Advances in Bus. Management/eISSN-2395-7441/pISSN-2395-7328/Vol. 2/Issue 03/ Jul-Sept. 2016 Page 145

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