Maggi ban affects 500 workers in Nestle's Goa unit

Panaji: Over 500 casual workers employed at Nestle's Goa manufacturing unit will be "impacted" due to the nationwide crackdown on Maggi.

"The contract workforce is getting impacted on account of Maggi noodles lines being shut down and the service providers are trying to redeploy around 500 of their contract workers elsewhere," Himangshu Manglik, spokesperson for Nestle's Indian operations, told IANS via an email.

The Nestle factory unit at Maulingem, in Bicholim sub district, manufactures Maggi noodles, sauces, ketchup as well as soups. But Manglik said the production of Maggi soup has completely stopped for now.

Manglik said "there is no impact" on the permanent employees of the company.

Goa had the banned sale of Maggi from Monday and nearly nine tonnes of Maggi noodles has already been withdrawn by the company.

Maggi has also been ordered withdrawn by the food safety regulator, even as many states have issued their own ban orders after tests reportedly revealed excess amounts of MSG and lead in the popular packaged noodles.