Maggi noodles - the big dilemna

We just returned from a month long vacation.  The trip involved some hiking and with two small kids in tow we were not very sure of the food we would get.  So, like many other families we packed in lots of maggie packets and a mini stove.  After all we thought - when we have "tasty n healthy" maggi - whats there to fear!!! We did consume most of our packs by the time we came to know of these allegations!!  And needless to say we were shocked!!

Over a period of time - Maggi became synonymous with noodles and households referred to noodles as Maggi. Children wanted to eat Maggi (and not noodles) because they were tasty and moms found them very easy to make.  I myself survived on Maggi many times during my bachelorhood. The  never ending endorsements and ads only helped enhance its appeal.

Therefore the present allegations are more than shocking for many of us.  If allegations turn out to be true, this is like a betrayal by the company.  It is also complete slackness and incompetence on the part of  all of us others, for having not found it earlier.  Imagine we were having this snack for more than 20 years and now we find that it has lead and MSG?!!! Anyway it is "better late than never".

Of the two, the presence of MSG (Mono Sodium Glutamate) or Ajinomoto (common name) can still be tolerated as most of the chinese dishes we relish in all restaurants/roadside stalla have a pinch of it but surely presence of lead beyond permissible limits is intolerable.  Delhi Govt reportedly found 17 ppm (parts per million) of lead in maggi as against prescribed limit of 2.5 ppm.  Now that is a huge difference!!! 

We as loyal consumers for two decades demand an explanation from Nestle on this account.  They must come clean on both contaminants and not give us some legalese.

But, the bigger question is - what about all the other brands and other products.  do their noodles not have MSG and lead? And Its not just noodles, it's time for stringent testing of all other fast foods which our children consume regularly - for, we do not want to wait for another decade to know if our other favourite junk foods are healthy (one could argue that junk foods can never be healthy - that is a given. we are only demanding that the contaminants in our favourite junk foods be kept below prescribed limits!!!!)

Its time to get everything tested - all noodles, wafers, diary products, chocolates(especially), biscuits and the like!!!