Healthier Maggi noodles - Nestle India launches iron fortified noodles
Nestle India is revamping its Maggi Masala Noodles by cutting the salt content and adding iron to launch a new fortified variant of the ready-to-cook noodles. The new Maggi noodles will be available at the same price as the non-fortified variant, which will soon be phased out. The move responds to the growing consumer and government demand for healthier products.
Nestle's global strategy to cut salt content
The plan to reduce salt content in Maggi noodles is part of Nestle's global strategy to cut sodium, sugar, saturated fat and add more vegetables and nutrient-rich ingredients. Nestle aims to reduce 10% salt across all Maggi branded products, including soups and seasonings, by 2020. Nestle claims it brought down Maggi products' sodium levels by 32.7% in the last ten years.
Commitment to reshape Maggi brand
Nestle India Chairman & Managing Director, Suresh Narayanan, stated, "At the forefront of this drive is the commitment to reshape Maggi brand's products to emphasize the use of familiar and common ingredients that people know and use for home cooking, from their own kitchen cupboard."
Maggi - Nestle India's single largest revenue earner
By adding iron to one of its most successful products, Maggi noodles, Nestle India aims to provide consumers 15% of the recommended dietary allowance. The company every year sells about 2.5 billion portions of the instant noodles, which are its single-largest revenue-earner in India. Nestle India stated Maggi noodles is a powerful product to address iron deficiency through the new iron fortified version.
Nestle India joins hands with government to fight malnutrition
Nestle is probably the first to launch fortified noodles, but other multinational companies like Mondelez International, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Unilever have announced plans to make healthier products globally. Nestle India and eight other companies, including GSK Consumer Healthcare and PepsiCo, recently joined hands with Women & Child Development Ministry and The Akshaya Patra Foundation to serve 5 billion meals to children by 2020.
Scientific food fortification and nutrition panel
Nestle India's move comes within only four months of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) constituting a scientific food fortification and nutrition panel. The panel aims to come up with guidelines to curb malnutrition in India by making fortified food supply mandatory for government-aided schemes. FSSAI would implement the guidelines in collaboration with the Women and Child Development Ministry.
Companies increasingly revamping food products
With consumers opting for healthier food options and governments implementing sugar taxes and capping sodium levels in food products, food companies are increasingly revamping their products. Globally, food companies refurbished around 180,000 products in 2016, according to a joint survey by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and The Consumer Goods Forum. The number of refurbished food items was only 23,000 in 2014.
