KATHMANDU: Sales of two instant noodle brands — Maggi and Mayos — have been banned across the country as both the brands were found using misleading labels.

Department of Food Technology and Quality Control (DFTQC) — the quality control authority — has said that even as the products meet the standards set by the government, the labels used by them is misleading.

The existing standards allow instant noodles to use up to one per cent of monosodium glutamate (MSG). The labels on Maggi, the product of Nestlé India Ltd, and Mayos, the product of local company Himalayan Snax and Noodles Pvt Ltd, say the products have no added MSG. However, the lab tests conducted recently on the products have revealed otherwise.

The DFTQC officials refused to reveal the details of the lab tests, only reiterating the products were safe for consumption.

The DFTQC is preparing to recommend the District Administration Offices to take action against the manufacturer in case of Mayos and authorised distributors of Maggi noodles in the country, as per the Food Act, 1967. “The Food Act prevents selling and/or distributing any food product by lying or giving misleading information,” said Sanjeev Kumar Karn, director general of DFTQC.

The DFTQC itself has no authority to take action, which is why it has to go through the respective law enforcement agency, District Administration Offices.

As per the provision of Food Act, the government can slap a fine of up to Rs 1,000 on companies with authorised capital of up to Rs two million and maximum Rs 4,000 on the company which has authorised capital of more than Rs 100 million.

DFTQC had collected samples of Maggi and other local brands from five development regions for quality tests after Maggi noodles were banned in different states of India, after the tests there found it contained high levels of lead.

DFTQC promptly banned import and sale of Maggi in Nepal, following the incident in the different states of southern neighbour and collected the samples of the product for lab tests on June 4. Subsequently, lab tests of some local brands had also been conducted.

Revealing the report of lab tests on Monday, DFTQC has said that all the noodle brands being distributed in the country do not contain lead exceeding the set limitation of 2.5 ppm (parts per million).

DFTQC had conducted lab tests on 13 samples of Maggi noodles that had been collected from different regions of the country, along with 16 samples of local brands, including popular Wai Wai and Yum Yum noodles.