Nestlé battles to get Maggi noodles back on shelves in India after food scare as sales slide

Nestlé has been desperately trying to get its Maggi noodles back on sale in India after the world’s biggest food company was forced to slash sales forecasts this year.

The Swiss company has been dogged by the scandal since June when India’s food standards agency demanded it withdraw all Maggi noodles from sale amid concerns over high levels of lead found in tests.

Bombay’s High Court lifted the ban in August but Nestlé was forced to destroy hundreds of millions of packets of the noodles brand, which accounts for 80% of the Indian market.

The country’s consumer court has ordered fresh tests on the noodles, but the results will not be heard until next month.

Nestlé said it was “actively engaging with the authorities to get the product back on the shelves”.

But the impact of the scandal weighed on sales, down 2.1% to Swfr64.9 billion (£44.1 billion) in the nine months to September, around Swfr1 billion short of forecasts.

Stripping out distortions like currency effects, sales slowed to 4.2%.

Nestlé, which makes a raft of household staples including Shredded Wheat, Nescafé and KitKats, cut its growth target for the year to 4.5% from its longer-term 5%-6% target.

Slower sales in China also hit the company, while its US skin health business paid out more than expected for rebates on prescription drugs sales.

The company is also fighting a stronger Swissie this year, which has hit a host of its exporters since the Swiss National Bank suddenly scrapped its €1.20 currency cap against the euro in January.

Its results were outshone by Unilever, which posted third-quarter sales growth of 5.7% on Thursday.