Update: 5.00 PM
New Delhi: Baba Ramdev-promoted Patanjali on Wednesday said it has followed all the guidelines and regulations of the Food Safety and Regulatory Authority of India (FSSAI) in the launch of its “atta” instant noodles and other products.
“We have followed all rules and guidelines by the FSSAI. We have not disobeyed any of them,” said S.K. Tijarawala, spokesperson for Patanjali.
“The FSSAI has given us the licence of re-labelling under pasta category and on basis of which we have given contract to various companies to make noodles (for us),” he said in the statement.
The remarks come in the wake of a top FSSAI official claiming that Patanjali’s instant noodles was launched without its product approval. The authority’s chairman Ashish Bahuguna has also been quoted as saying that product approval for pasta cannot apply to noodles.
The chairman, however, was not available for comment. Following persistent calls, his office told an IANS correspondent that the chairman “cannot respond to individual queries” and that he had said what he wanted to.
The authority did not issue a statement either. But a set of questions was nevertheless forwarded over e-mail to the chairman’s office on the subject.
Tijarawala said Patanjali had taken a product licence for pasta under the “central category” and that noodles, accordingly, fell under that.
Forwarding some documents to IANS purportedly from the food safety authority Tijarawala alluded that by virtue of Licence Number 10014012000266, renewed on October 15 this year and valid till February 21, 2019, a “modified licence” was also issued.
He said the pasta sold by Patanjali has already secured the modified licence; this also gave it the right to manufacture noodles as it was only a variant.
Patanjali had formally launched its wholewheat instant noodles on Monday.
Earlier Report: Ramdev’s Patanjali Atta noodles have no approval, says FSSAI
New Delhi: The instant noodles brand launched by yoga teacher Ramdev Baba has not obtained mandatory product approvals from the Food Safety and Regulatory Authority of India, according to officials. However, the ‘Patanjali Atta Noodles’ packets display an “FSSAI license number”.
“Patanjali Atta Noodles has not got product approvals from us. The matter has been brought to our notice. We are pursuing it,” Ashish Bahuguna, FSSAI chairperson who also holds additional charge as its CEO, told a daily.
Sources added that Patanjali Ayurved, the FMCG venture that Ramdev promotes, has not applied for approvals for the noodles yet.
When asked about the Patanjali noodles packets at the Monday launch flaunting “FSSAI license number 10014012000266”, Bahuguna said: “How can license be given for a product that has not been approved? Licenses are issued by the state government to manufacture certain items. But approvals for (non-standardised) products are given by us. That approval was not taken. I do not know how the license was procured.”
