By The Editor: Siddharth Sehgal

Maggi is a classic example of how some food and drug companies in India prioritize profits over people’s health. Tea, honey, soft drinks are few worthy mentions from an endless list of products that came under the food safety radar for all the wrong reasons. Because of corruption and lax officials most of the time these things don’t see the light of day but Maggi was caught red handed big time.

 The usual explanation will be “we didn’t knew, our products are safe” and after that just wait for things to cool down and then back to business. Maggi’s CEO says noodles are safe, but we can safely wager our money on that he won’t feed those noodles to his own children. This profit making mindset is not limited to big corporations; we often hear cases of small street vendors and some local businesses who inject chemicals to make vegetables look fresh or mix milk with some concoction of chemicals and in few instances mixing chemicals with milk. Tales of Villagers dying from poisoned or moonshined alcohol are far too common in newspapers. We need stronger legislation against such activities; it’s tantamount to committing a murder, it’s all deliberate to make profits at the expense of peoples lives.

 Even adulteration in the milk we get is taken for granted. Restaurants serving stale food to patrons are no shocker too. A typical example would be of a food inspector who threatens the license of a business until they warm his fists. Imagine how many people have fallen sick or even died because of food poisoning all because somewhere down the chain, someone didn’t do their job.

Thanks to social media and digital age, people are more aware of social issues and even seemingly insignificant matters can sky rocket to public attention. Had it not been for few checkups of Maggi packets in Agra this adulteration might have been gone unnoticed and lo and behold, we have live larva in Nestle milk powder packets. It is important for the authorities to heed public mood and act quickly to address the problem. This is one good case where public opinion resulted in swift action from state to central level. The surprising fact is that these very same companies who also export their products to far off lands like United States, Britain and Europe take all necessary steps to adhere to safety standards, why? Cause law and order is much more vigilant in these countries to let these incidents go unnoticed. Some industry insiders go so far as to tell that the manufacturing process is different for goods that are exported and for goods that are made for Indian masses.

 The massive recall of Maggi should serve as an example to those who are thinking of indulging or are indulged in such deeds. Sooner or later the law catches up, it remains to be seen how much of catching up will courts do in Maggi’s case.