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India's food safety regulator has ordered CG Foods India to stop producing two Wai Wai-branded bhujia products after an inspection at its factory in Rajasthan, and seized more than 32 tonnes of stock.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India found that broken noodles collected from the factory floor were being reprocessed into bhujia, a fried Indian snack, without heat treatment. Inspectors at the plant in Roopangarh, Ajmer also identified unlicensed manufacturing, the use of predated packaging, and deficiencies in hygiene and documentation including inadequate pest-control records.
The regulator seized 32,107.2 kilograms of stock, including loose broken noodles, and detained 1,925 boxes of expired finished products found at the site, according to Indian reports citing the authority. Legal proceedings have been initiated against the food business operator.
Samples went to the laboratory. They include loose noodle material, the two vegetarian bhujia products, used cooking oil and Wai Wai ready-to-eat noodles. Further regulatory action will depend on what the tests show.
CG Foods India said it is cooperating fully with the regulatory process and remains committed to food safety, quality and compliance, according to Reuters.
What has been ordered is narrower than a ban. The instruction covers the bhujia products made at the Rajasthan facility, and the noodles themselves were sampled rather than withdrawn.
The company belongs to Binod Chaudhary, the Nepalese businessman who runs CG Corp Global and remains the only billionaire in Nepal. Wai Wai is the group's flagship brand and the business that made his name, sold across Nepal, India and international markets, and it earned him the description of Nepal's noodle king.
CG Corp Global is diversified well beyond food, spanning hotels, financial services, education and consumer goods, but Wai Wai is the product most people associate with him, which makes an Indian enforcement action against it a problem for the group's most visible business in its largest export market.
India has been tightening enforcement across the sector. Reuters reports that regulators have taken action against major brands, restaurants and retailers over hygiene, labelling and food safety standards, in a crackdown covering violations from poor hygiene practices to improper labelling.
The authority said further action would follow where applicable under India's food safety laws.
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