What\\\'s wrong with Maggi noodles?

India is one of the largest markets in the world for instant noodles. According to market research institute Euromonitor International, Nestle has a market share of almost two-thirds. The noodles make up only a fraction of Group sales of converted 87 billion euro. But, by the possibly biggest food scandal in India for almost a decade, Nestle threatens a loss of image.

India has ordered tests on Maggi noodles after some were found to contain high levels of lead. They have been temporarily banned from sale in Delhi and some grocery chains have taken them off their shelves. Nestle India denies its products are unsafe.

When Maggi instant noodles arrived in India in 1983 - the year when India lifted the cricket World Cup for the first time - they instantly caught the nation's imagination. The idea that anything could be cooked in two minutes had an immediate impact on a people that had invented slow food centuries before it became fashionable in fast food cultures. The "two-minute noodles" advertising campaign on state-run television with which Maggi launched itself turned out to be an instant attraction because of its liberating message for women.

The "Maggi Mom" was not only seen as loving and caring of her children as her mother was of her, but she was also able to juggle her workplace and domestic responsibilities because of the snack.

Coming from Nestle, it had to be trusted, despite the foreignness of a product that India had not seen before. The Maggi promotional campaign, moreover, was among the first to recognize the changing profile of middle-class women in metropolitan India.

Nestle has had a long relationship with India that goes back to 1912, when it launched in the country as The Nestle Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company (Export).

After India's Independence - 1947, incidentally, was the year when Nestle acquired Maggi - the company was quick to recognize the new government's emphasis on local production and formed its Indian subsidiary in 1961, setting up its first factory at Moga in Punjab state.

The choice of the location was also government-dictated because the then dispensation, steered by the socialist idealism of India's first PM Jawaharlal Nehru, wanted Nestle to develop the milk economy of Punjab.

Maggi travelled across India on the back of this formidable legacy and soon it was everywhere. Within its first 25 years, it was able to command 90% of the quick noodles market it had created.

Unsurprisingly, when the brand launched the Me and Meri Maggi campaign (Me and My Maggi campaign) in its silver jubilee year in 2008, inviting people to send in their personal Maggi stories, its advertising agency Publicist Capital was deluged with more than 30,000 entries.

It was a testimony to the deep inroads Maggi had made into the everyday lives of its loyal customers.

Nestle says it will destroy more than $50m (£32m) worth of its hugely popular Maggi noodles, following a ban imposed by India's food safety regulator.

India's food safety regulator says tests have found the instant noodles "unsafe and hazardous" and has accused Nestle of failing to comply with food safety laws.

The company insists that the noodles are safe and is challenging the ban.

Nestle has 80% of India's instant noodles market.

The company said in a statement that the value of withdrawn noodles include stocks taken off the shelves and stocks stored in factories and with distributors.

"There will be additional costs to take into account, for example bringing stock from the market, transporting the stock to the destruction points, destruction cost etc. The final figure will have to be confirmed at a later date," Nestle said.

Earlier this month, Nestle began withdrawing the Maggi brand from stores, after regulators said they found higher-than-allowed levels of lead in some packets.

The company is challenging the ban in the high court in the city of Mumbai and "raised issues of interpretation" of India's food safety laws.

Nestle's global chief executive Paul Bulcke has asked to see the results of the laboratory tests and promised to return Maggi to store shelves soon.

Several states have also been testing the noodles for the chemical monosodium glutamate, widely known as MSG.

The Indian market for instant noodles is dominated by the food company Nestle. But now the sale of Maggi noodles were forbidden that should be loaded with lead. Nestle is taking legal action against the ban.

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