India food safety crackdown targets company of Nepal's 'Noodle King'

NEW DELHI: India on Friday ordered a Nepali billionaire’s company popular for its Wai Wai noodles to discontinue some products after an investigation found its factory used unhygienic “floor-collected, broken noodles” in making its Indian snacks.

The crackdown is part of an unprecedented food safety drive in India, where federal and state officials are taking strict action against big and small eateries and brands ranging from Domino’s and Pizza Hut to Diageo for any food safety, hygiene or labelling lapses.

Friday’s order was issued to a CG Foods India factory in Rajasthan state in western India, which is part of CG Corp Global, led by Nepal’s only billionaire Binod Chaudhary, nicknamed the “Noodle King”.

The regulator’s investigation focused on two Wai Wai-branded products called bhujia — a popular fried Indian snack sold by many companies in the country in tiny packs.

Inspectors found “re-processing floor-collected broken noodles into bhujia without heat treatment”, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) said in a social media post.

CG Foods India did not respond to a request for comment.

Authorities also seized 32,000 kg of stock from the factory, as well as 1,925 boxes of expired finished goods, the FSSAI said, adding that “strict legal proceedings” were initiated against the food business operator.

Samples have also been collected for testing, it added.

Last week, Indian authorities raided an illegal operation in Mumbai that faked expiry dates and nutritional information on original food products manufactured by PepsiCo, Nestle and others so they could be exported to other countries, Reuters reported.