On June 2, 2015, the much talked about controversy “Maggi noodles” took a new turn.
A district court in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur directed the police to register an FIR against two Nestle officials Mohan Gupta and Sabab Alam, and film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit and Preity Zinta, who have featured in the Maggi advertisements and arrest them if required.
Maggi noodles samples have been found by authorities to contain non-essential taste enhancer MSG and high levels of lead. However, the claim was disputed by the company.
The case has been filed under IPC sections 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life), 273 (sale of noxious food or drink), 276 (sale of drug as a different drug or preparation) and 420 (cheating and dishonesty).
So for the manufacturing of any product, how can we blame the brand ambassadors? And why do we blame them? Just because they are endorsing a super popular brand of noodles?
I don’t understand why is everyone blaming the brand ambassadors and not the Food Standards and Safety Authority of India (FSSAI) who gave a green signal to the production of such noodles at the first place? It is their responsibility to check the contents and think if they are edible or not.
According to the FSSAI website, FSSAI has been created for laying down science based standards for articles of food and to regulate their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import to ensure availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption.
So isn’t this the responsibility of FSSAI? It is right?
If you cannot blame the FSSAI for allowing Nestle to produce it, then you have no right to blame the ambassadors just for promoting it.
But as we live in the Incredible India, where we blame the promoters and not the manufacturers. Hats off to the court authorities.
