Reuters is reporting that the Indian Government has just filed a $100 million lawsuit against Nestle's Indian branch after unsafe amounts of monosodium glutamate (MSG) and lead were found in samples of the company's popular Maggi Noodles.
The report calls the incident the country's worst packaged food scare in a decade.
The government's lawsuit, cities unfair trade practices, the sale of defective goods and the sale of a product without approval, as the violations.
In May, a regulator in the Uttar Pradesh region of the country discovered dangerous amounts of lead in samples of the Noodles, a claim strongly denied by the company.
Nestle has said that it was "disappointed with the unprecedented step" of filing of the complaint. According to them "More than 2,700 samples of Maggi noodles have been tested by laboratories in India and abroad in recent months, and each test confirmed the level of lead to be "far below permissible limits."
They released this information page detailing facts about the product. Their official statement reads:
The trust of our consumers and safety of our products are our outmost priorities across all the markets in which we operate.
Nestlé India respects the decision made on 13th August by the Hon'ble Bombay High Court to revoke the ban order passed by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India's (FSSAI) and the FDA, Maharashtra on MAGGI Noodles and will comply with the order to undertake fresh tests.
Nestlé India remains committed to working with the FSSAI, FDA Maharashtra and other stakeholders.
It is Nestlé India's endeavour to get MAGGI Noodles back on the shelves as soon as possible for the benefit of our consumers.
We await copy of the Judgment.
Nestle India has reported a loss in the second fiscal quarter of 2015 due to this.
