Nestle Looking To Bring Maggi Back To Indian Store Shelves 'At The Earliest' After Tests Find Noodles Safe

Nestlé SA is looking to bring its instant noodles, Maggi, back to store shelves in India, where it was banned in June for higher-than-permissible lead content. Maggi, on its part, has always challenged these findings.

The tests mandated by a court in India following the ban showed the samples fit for consumption and the company aims to reintroduce the product "at the earliest [possible time]," Nestlé said in a press release Friday.

India's federal food safety authorities ordered the packaged noodles off the shelves after finding they contained higher-than-permissible levels of lead and elevated levels of monosodium glutamate (MSG) -- findings which Nestlé disputed.

The Swiss company recalled its products, about 27,000 metric tons of them, but said at the time its own tests showed the noodles were safe and met India’s rules. Nestlé also went to court challenging the food safety authorities' order as well as how India's food safety rules were interpreted in a ban of its product in the western state of Maharashtra.

The state's Bombay High Court ruled in August to lift the ban, but mandated new tests to decide if Nestle could manufacture Maggi for sale in India again.

The company has received test results from the three laboratories mandated by the Bombay High Court to test Maggi noodles samples, and "all the 90 samples, covering 6 variants, tested by these laboratories are clear with lead much below the permissible limits," Nestlé said in the statement.

In compliance with the court's ruling, "we will now commence manufacture and will start selling only after the newly manufactured products are also cleared by the designated three laboratories," the company said.