This is the second complaint in the city in connection with the company’s baby food
agencies, Chennai June 16: Still fighting the Maggi noodles crisis in court, Nestle India Tuesday was hit by another potential trouble-spot with a consumer filing a complaint with the food safety watchdog saying that a packet of baby food Cerelac was found infested with worms in Coimbatore.
“We have received a complaint about a worm-infested packet of Cerelac. We have sent the packet for tests. We will be collecting three more samples of the same Cerelac variant and send it for tests,” R. Kathiravan, the designated officer of the food safety and drug administration, told IANS over phone from Coimbatore, around 500 km from the Tamil Nadu capital.
M.S. Sriram, the complainant, also told IANS over phone from Coimbatore, “We bought the Cerelac packet on Sunday. It was opened only Monday around noon by my wife to feed our baby. To her shock, she found worms in the powder and called me.”
“The expiry date on the pack was printed as February 2016. We always buy food products after checking the expiry date,” Sriram said. He said he then called Nestle India’s toll-free complaint number and got a “pathetic response”.
According to Kathiravan, there was a remote chance of a properly packed product getting infested with worms. Incidentally, this was the second such complaint in Coimbatore with Nestle India’s baby food.
Nestle shares under pressure
Shares of Nestle India slipped almost 3 per cent Tuesday as the company starts destroying Maggi noodles worth Rs320cr after it was banned by food safety regulator FSSAI due to presence of lead and taste enhancer monosodium glutamate beyond permissible limits. The stock of Nestle India dropped 2.65 per cent to Rs5,791 on BSE. On NSE, it lost 2.77 per cent to Rs5,790. The company Monday said it is in the process of withdrawing the stock from markets, factories and distribution channels and destroying it.
Maggi crisis impacts workers
Around 1,500 workers involved in manufacturing of Maggi in India have been ‘impacted’ by the stoppage of production after ban of the instant noodles brand. Besides, suppliers have also been hit by the Maggi ban and Nestle India’s largest supplier of spices, Moga-based Paras Spices Ltd, has already ended services of some temporary workers.
