Food safety squads to ensure no sale of Maggi

Thiruvananthapuram: Food safety squads have been appointed in all 14 districts of Kerala to ensure that there is no sale of the banned Maggi noodles in the state, Health minister V S Shivakumar said Monday.

The district level squads would conduct searches at all retail outlets selling food products for a week from tomorrow to ensure that there is no sale of Maggi noodles, which was into controversy after lead and MSG content were found beyond permissible limit in some states.

Noodles of all brands would also be subjected to stringent tests, Shivakumar said here.

The minister chaired a meeting here with Food and Civil Supplies minister Anoop Jacob and other senior officials of food and safety and civil supplies departments.

Searches would also be conducted in hotels and restaurants to check if there was an excess use of taste enhancers including MSG, Shivakumar said in a statement here.

Kerala government issued an order to stop distribution of Maggi noodles from over 1,000 retail outlets in the state in the wake of Uttar Pradesh FSDA finding monosodium glutamate and lead above permissible limits in the popular snack.

The Food Safety commissioner has been directed to submit a report to the government on a daily basis with regard to the searches.