Maggie Testing Muddle

Few days back I took both of my kids to near by park # Desertbreeze. By that time I took them to the park, the temperature was not very high but it’s O.K to linger around for a while. Before we step into the park, I asked my elder one to test the water bottle to find any “leaks”. She asked me  Why daddy? I told her that many times you kept water bottle on the play ground without notice of any leaks that left us thirsty!!!. she replied back- Oh yah!!!.. She asked me how to test. I told her do it as you wish. She lifted the bottle from left to right, upside to downside and swirled the water inside in many directions. She noticed no water leaks and asked me to re verify. She did not check the cap fix. I verified the cap and noticed no water drops outside the bottle or around. I told her “You did a good testing”. She laughed at me and then ran faster into the ground.

This small incident somehow made me to think about the recent Maggi Fiasco and their testing methodology and interpretation of food safety regulations. How did a 33-year-old brand, the first to introduce instant noodles in India, vanish from supermarket shelves in a matter of days?

“How it all began” The Hindu BusinessLine

“In March 2014, an officer of the Uttar Pradesh Food Safety and Drug Administration (FDA) picked up Maggi samples as part of a routine test. The samples, taken from Barabanki, were sent to a laboratory in Gorakhpur, which ‘confirmed’ the presence of monosodium glutamate (MSG).The dispute, which could have been settled with a fine, escalated after Nestle decided to appeal against the finding. The samples were sent to Kolkata’s Central Food Laboratory (CFL) but for unexplained reasons found their way to Himachal Pradesh before being forwarded to the right quarter many months later.Almost a year later, CFL confirmed not only the presence of MSG, but widened the controversy by pointing to presence of lead at 17.2 parts per million (ppm) or nearly eight times the prescribed limit of 2.5 ppm.”

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and the Centre then swung into action and each state FDA was asked to test Maggi samples. No one could have fathomed that this would snowball into the biggest food product recall not only in India but in Nestlé’s history.By the time, the company’s global CEO Paul Bulcke flew in for damage control, the damage was already done.

Testing quandary:

• I believe this is a failure of testing and their methodology used for.
• Failure of test processes used for.
• Failure of continuous Monitor.
• Failure of people who control it.
• Failure of ownership.
• Failure of finding the quality raw materials used.
• Failure of Industry and regulatory surveillance.
• Failure of product recall process.

The unpalatable truth about the Maggie Fiasco tells us the importance of testing and it’s accuracy. So, It is important to remember that every testing methodology has a glass ceiling. This glass ceiling is all about saturation in terms of numbers, quality with ubiquity, lack of differentiation. Test well and make well……