Everyone has that one friend or acquaintance who was brilliant and talented when young. It looked as if he would make it big. But suddenly one day you realise that there is a dark side to him– he went the wrong way, dabbled in narcotics, or became a drunkard and slowly you fell out because no matter how much you hoped he never came out of that abyss.
The news about Maggi being pulled off the shelves by major departmental stores in the country after it was found unsafe for consumption is something like that. I know I won't buy it for myself or my family fearing for my health, but I can't help but feel bad that a part of my youth has now been a thing of contempt.
As a student living alone, Maggi was a life saver. You needed to rush back to classes, order an instant Maggi noodles. If friends stayed back but no one had money to order food – buy 8 packets of Maggie and make a soupy dinner. Want some munchies with your evening drinks at your house party– mix maggie with onions tomatoes and batter fry it for snacks. This yellow squiggly noodle was a one-stop solution to all hunger problems. It helped that you could experiment – add fried egg or boiled chicken, and on a cold winter day add some chopped veggies and butter.
But reminiscing about the days gone doesn't help. What is worse is that no matter how nice it was, and how much it saved us from hunger in the middle of the night on our first camping trip, I can't help but think of what we have put our bodies through – unknowingly. Unfortunately, as ignorant as we stand about what is present in our packed products, we often ignore such 'mishaps' and it takes years before any action is taken for putting our lives at jeopardy.
A big conglomerate like Nestle is trusted around the world. I am sure that everyone knows how fast food is not the most healthy thing to consume. But to ignore harmful substances like lead in food items that is mostly consumed by children and young adults, is to my mind, irresponsible. Are such food corporations not accountable for what they give to their consumers? The government is sure hauling up the company, but isn’t this too little too late?
All this only gives me a sense of deja vu, a decade ago cola manufacturing biggies – Coca Cola and Pepsi were dragged to court when their soft drinks were found to have more than 30 times the level of pesticide residues permitted under European Union regulations.
The companies denied allegations vehemently and finally decided to set standards once the government lab reports confirmed the worst fear of the consumers. Several Bollywood endorsements and heavy PR activities were undertaken to change that image – and all was good once again. Despite proof that there were indeed carcinogenic pesticides present in them, the sales dropped a mere 11%. Now, we are all back to consuming bubbly fizzy drinks which, even if they have met the standards, will anyway give us diabetes.\
The only tragedy is that the food standards are easily broken in India. Rampant corruption at the ground level in the country means that we need to trust the 'goodness' of these business giants to not feed us poison. But, as it is out for all to see – the only thing they seem to be interested in is making money.
Sometimes it feels that I am being paranoid about it all. But the fact is that maybe my days of having Maggi are over. But children across the country are still lovingly going to eat these products – because the controversy shall soon die down and there would be some bigger advertising and long pending court cases.
I wonder if only regulatory boards were tough on industries, especially consumables, would the nostalgia of living with this two-minute wonder not have been marred!