Coimbatore: With the Tamil Nadu government banning the sale of four different noodle brands in the State including Nestle's Maggi on Thursday, the Tamil Nadu Food Safety Department has planned to collect samples of other popular noodle brands for testing from Friday.
A top official from the Tamil Nadu Food Safety and Drug Administration said the department was planning to widen its net and had decided to analyse samples of 10 different brands including three multinational products (Top Ramen, Knorr and Yippee), locally produced as well as homemade noodles across the state from Friday.
Since Maggi noodles samples collected from many parts of the country reportedly had high lead content and monosodium glutamate (MSG, also known as ajinomoto), similar tests would be conducted to identify the presence of lead and MSG in other noodle brands too, sources told Express.
The food safety official said that apart from lead, presence of other heavy metals including mercury, cadmium would also be analysed.
Microbiological tests will be used to check whether the food had bacteria, yeasts or viruses and similar tests would be done on random samples to find out if the products in the market met the benchmarks set by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the official added.
In Coimbatore, the food safety officers will collect 15 samples from different locations beginning Friday. These samples will be tested at the Food Analysis Laboratory on Race Course and reports would be sent within a fortnight.
Samples collected from other districts will be tested at five other labs in Chennai, Madurai, Salem, Thanjavur and Palayamkottai and the compiled report would be sent to the head office in Chennai based on which a final decision would be taken, the official added.
There were no updates on whether legal notices would be issued to the brand ambassadors of these products if they contained lead and MSG beyond the permissible limit.
Experts warned that lead poisoning led to neural damage, affected intestines and bone marrow, reduced the haemoglobin levels and caused anaemia. Ingesting MSG over a permissible limit led to headaches, nausea and taking it over a period of time might weaken the nerves.