Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Atta Noodles In Controversy

It seems like Noodles are the new heartthrob of India for controversies. Few months back everyone’s favorite Maggi was the concerned issue and now it is Patanjali’s Atta Noodles which has taken a hit. However, if this news can provide some relief, Maggi is in the market now.

Noodles have raised that much hue and cry what pesticides in vegetables have not created.
The Recent war of words is between FSSAI and Baba Ramdev’s Brand Patanjali’s Atta Noodles. It seems like noodles are in the hot, spicy, steamy object in Indian controversial plate these days. Let’s take a look on the words quoted at each other in this war.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) chairperson Ashish Bahuguna who is also additional charge as its CEO said to a leading daily that “Patanjali Atta Noodles has not got product approvals from us. The matter has been brought to our notice. We are pursuing it,”.

To which the reply was “I think there has been some sort of a miscommunication between the authorities and the company. Patanjali Atta noodles have the necessary approval for manufacturing. No illegality has been committed by Patanjali Ayurveda,” Baba Ramdev said.

At the back side of Patanjali’s noodles, there is a “FSSAI licence number 10014012000266”. The license number is rejected by the FSSAI CEO himself, he said, “How can licence be given for a product that has not been approved? Licences are issued by the state government to manufacture certain items. But approvals for (non-standardised) products are given by us. That approval was not taken. I do not know how the licence was procured.”

Patanjali claimed they have approvals for various products and they have license for pasta category and noodles are in the category of pasta. However per FSSAI it has no approval for instant noodles as if now only 10 brands have an approval of instant noodles.

Noodles war has again shown that either the guidelines are not clear for food products or the organisations are not worried to pay heed to it.

Patanjali brand from last year is expanding through length and breadth in all non-durables and durables category. It has the name which is now known in all Indian Households and even abroad. Baba Ramdev is a brand in himself, any controversy like this is not going to do any harm to him. However, if FSSAI declares that noodles are of inferior quality then it is going to tarnish the trust that people have for him and Patanjali.

We as consumers are not aware and in most of the cases get carried away by advertisements, if one remembers even the honey we consumed was banned across the world and was consumed in India. The amount of Oxytetracycline found was almost 3 times in popular honey brands including Patanjali’s per report of CSE (Centre for Science and Environment) in 2010.

The need of the hour is to know, how important is our health and how we have ruined it, the network of government agencies is like a cobweb in which Consumers get stick. Loopholes and red-tapism are helping and allowing companies to play with the health of consumers. A serious work and revival needs to be done for parameters and guidelines associated with food and food products.

It seems like a campaign like “Jago Grahak Jago” is just a slogan.

18 Nov 2015
P.Rawat