Maggi set to return in two weeks, Prasoon Joshi to create the re-launch campaign

Maggi, the popular instant noodle brand, is set to return to store shelves as Nestle said it cleared tests mandated by the Bombay High Court and that the company will restart production of the snack within two-three weeks.

Nestle India announced a voluntary recall of the noodles on June 5, the same day national food regulator Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) banned its sale alleging excessive levels of lead in it and mislabeling on the pack. The recall, the country"s biggest and which grabbed international headlines, almost wiped out the entire instant noodles category and dented the sales of all packaged snacks, as wary consumers avoided them.

In August, the Bombay High Court lifted the ban, but asked the company to get the samples tested before it starts selling the product.

Finally, on Friday, Nestle said it received results from all three laboratories mandated by the high court to test the samples.

All the 90 samples, covering six variants, tested by the laboratories had lead much below the permissible limits, it said. These are the same Maggi lots that failed to clear tests at FSSAI labs, it said.

There’s more good news. It seems as if Advertising veteran Prasoon Joshi is likely to create the re-launch campaign for Maggi.
While Publicis Worldwide remains Maggi's advertising agency, manufacturer Nestle India has hired McCann World Group to manage the new project as the noodle brand tries to make a reentry into the market four months after the company recalled it, senior industry executives said.

Joshi is chief executive of McCann World Group India, a unit of global marketing firm McCann Erickson. This decision, the executives said, comes on the heels of the 100-year corporate campaign that McCann created for Nestle this year, which was penned by Joshi himself.

Image credit: Indiatimes