Nestle India plans to relaunch Maggi noodles by Diwali

Nestle India is planning to relaunch Maggi instant noodles in the market by Diwali, after the samples cleared tests of three laboratories on safety parameters last week.

The firm is inspecting the facilities of various vendors, and is collecting samples in order to relaunch the instant noodle brand by the festive season in November.

In June, the Indian food safety regulator, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), banned the sale of Maggi noodles after it detected higher-than-permissible levels of lead, and high quantities of mono-sodium glutamade in tests carried out on a batch of products.

Following this, Nestle destroyed close to 27,420t of Maggi noodles, valued at around $50m.

The company challenged the Indian food safety regulator’s ban and approached the Bombay High Court in August, which ordered the regulator to complete re-tests within six weeks, in court-appointed laboratories. The court also lifted the ban on Maggi noodles.

Last week, Nestle received test results from all three laboratories mandated by the court, and all the 90 samples, covering six variants, were found to be have lead far below the permissible limits.

On Monday, the states of Gujarat and Karnataka decided to lift the ban imposed in June on the sale of the product.

The firm is currently activating its supply chain in order to get the product into the market by the festive season.

A vendor told the Indian Express: "They [Nestle’s officials] collected samples for testing and asked to beef up manpower as headcount was significantly reduced following the Maggi fiasco. They also asked us to fumigate the plant and get it ready from a hygiene point of view."

The Maggi brand generates Rs20bn annually for the Indian arm of the Swiss firm.

Nestle expects to support the launch of the products with advertisements. A set of TV commercials created by the McCann World Group will soon be aired. This week, it began its relaunch campaign with a print advertisement that reads: "Your Maggi is safe, has always been."

The advertisement also highlights that around 3,500 Maggi samples had gone through rigorous test in India, as well as in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.