Indian authorities raided a warehouse and discovered an $80,000 stockpile of products from Nestle, PepsiCo, Lays, Coca-Cola , Maggi and UniLever with forged expiry dates and nutritional information intended for exportation to other countries.
The original expiry dates and nutrition information were erased with a chemical solvent and replaced with forged details. The officers found machines were used to print the fake information.
The fake label edited the original number of calories and serving sizes to align with the food regulations of the destination country.
Some of the reprinted information was in the bilingual format which had both English and French languages.
The Head of the Food and Drug Administration in India’s Maharashtra state, Tukaram Mundhe, inspected major warehouses across the state, including the capital, Mumbai.
“I am absolutely shocked by the scale. It is like organised activity. It’s been done systematically,” Reuters quoted Mr Mundhe as saying.
Nearly 5,000 cartons of products had been compromised. Affected products include “PepsiCo’s Lay’s and Kurkure chips, Nestle’s Maggi Masala Noodles, Unilever’s Knorr Mushroom Soup and Hellmann’s Mayonnaise, and Coca-Cola’s Thums Up and Limca cans,” Reuters reported.
“The original date of manufacture and expiry date on the packaging of the food articles had been scratched out, erased … (and) new information printed over them,” the newspaper quoted the police document as saying.
Mr Mundhe said the matter called for urgent action.
“Everybody needs to take this seriously. Companies have to abide with compliances and ensure that branding, packaging and sale is done as per regulations,” he said.
The newspaper said the PepsiCo, Nestle, Unilever India unit Hindustan Unilever and Coca-Cola had yet to comment on the development.
It was not immediately clear if the police intend to take any action against the warehouses co-owners Jayprakash Sanchatiram Singh and Jaya Navrang Bahadur Singh.
