Maggi noodles make comeback in India

Nestle India has started shipping Maggi noodles to departmental stores on the occasion of Diwali. The Swiss food and beverages giant informed that it has started selling its flagship instant noodles to eight states where the ban was imposed. The company is in touch with authorities of all eight states for specific orders. It has made Snapdeal its official online partner and selling the noodles through their website.

The Nestle is manufacturing Maggi Noodles at three plants now. The production will begin at another two locations soon. These three plants are Moga(Punjab), Bicholim (Goa) and Nanjangud (Karnataka). The plants in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh are awaiting for the official green signal.

Maggi noodles are now certified by three top laboratories in the country. All three laboratories come under the National Accreditation Board for Test and Calibration Laboratories (NABL). The reports made clear that Maggi noodles were safe for human consumption. Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), India’s food regulator banned the sale of popular noodles in the month of June. This forced Nestle India to withdraw all nine variants of Maggi, which contributed 30 percent to its annual profits. The regular found that the company was using excessive monosodium glutamate (MSG) and lead traces were detected in the noodles too.

The ‘Maggi effect’ was fairly visible on the market where the sales of chocolates, instant foods and milk products dropped by 9 percent. During the ban period, other brands have tried to capture the instant noodles market dominated by Maggi. The company now has to face increased competition from emerging players such as Patanjali noodles and Yeppie.  The brand image of Maggi and Nestle has been spoilt due to this fiasco.