“國民泡面”回歸印度

“國民泡面”回歸印度

美極方便面（Maggi），這款從 1983 年開始就充斥在印度大街小巷的方便面，在印度人民心中擁有一個特殊的地位，今年 6 月被政府全面禁止銷售。如今雀巢發(fā)表聲明，旗下美極方便面通過最終安全審查將首先在印度4個邦恢復銷售

測試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識：

impoverished 窮困的

hazardous 危險的

vindicate 為…辯護

arbitrary 任意的

flawed 有缺陷的

multinational 跨國公司

glutamate 谷氨酸

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Maggi noodles back on sale in India （478words）

By Victor Mallet in New Delhi

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Nestlé has restarted sales of its popular Maggi instant noodles in India after food safety fears left the company with $77m in direct losses, cost its country chief his job, led to the destruction of 37,000 tonnes of packaged noodles and impoverished thousands of fast-food stall owners and distributors.

“It’s a very happy moment for us,” said Suresh Narayanan, the India managing director appointed in August to deal with one of the biggest product safety scares in Nestlé’s history. “We’ve been through arguably a very big crisis.”

The trouble began in June when the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India banned the production and sale of the Maggi instant noodles that made up nearly 30 per cent of Nestlé’s business in the country, on the grounds that tests showed them to be “hazardous and unsafe for human consumption” because of excessive levels of lead.

Nestlé denied there was anything wrong with the noodles, which are sold across India and cooked at roadside stalls dubbed “Maggi points”. The company was vindicated by a Bombay High Court judgment lifting the ban and describing it as arbitrary and “a violation of natural justice”.

Tests in other countries, including the US, the UK, Singapore and Australia, and tests performed in India after the court ruling showed the noodles to be safe and suggested that the earlier tests were flawed.

Meanwhile, however, the Indian authorities —— never shy of targeting foreign multinationals —— raised the stakes with a Ministry of Consumer Affairs lawsuit claiming $100m in damages over Nestlé’s alleged misleading of customers with “hazardous, defective and misbranded products”.

The ministry said the phrase, “No added MSG [monosodium glutamate]” on the packets was false, even though Nestlé said that the glutamate occurred naturally in the product and that it had in any case already agreed to remove the phrase from the packets.

“We were always safe, we are safe, we continue to be safe,” Mr Narayanan said. “It’s been unfortunate that we’ve been slapped [with] this class action lawsuit.” He said Nestlé would defend itself and declined to be drawn on whether the group would launch its own countersuit demanding damages from the government over losses and disrupted business.

Two of Nestlé’s five noodle factories in India are still closed because of state bans in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, and the relaunch started gradually on Monday with only the “masala” flavour distributed to 100 Indian cities. “The product inside is exactly the same [as before],” Mr Narayanan said.

He expressed respect for the primacy of FSSAI, the regulator, but noted diplomatically that testing for heavy metals required high-tech infrastructure, exacting test protocols and skilled manpower.

“This is an industry-wide issue. Nestlé happens to have been in the eye of the storm,” Mr Narayanan said. “There’s no victor. There’s no vanquished. We stand vindicated in terms of food quality and food safety.”

請根據(jù)你所讀到的文章內(nèi)容，完成以下自測題目：

1. Why Maggi instant noodles is forbidden to sell in India?

a. competition's attacks

b. political reasons

c. food safety issues

d. corporate strategy

2. What was the Nestlé’s attitude towards food safety issue?

a. approbatory

b. negative

c. guilty

d. disappointed

3. Which country is not on the noodles test list?

a. Canada

b. America

c. Singapore

d. Australia

4. How many Nestlé’s noodle factories in India are still closed?

a. five

b. zero

c. two

d. three

[1] 答案 c. food safety issues

解釋：由于有食品安全方面的擔憂，美極(Maggi)方便面被迫下架。

[2] 答案 b. negative

解釋：雀巢方面對于食品安全的質(zhì)疑是否認的。

[3] 答案 a. Canada

解釋：在其他國家，包括美國、英國、澳大利亞、新加坡也做了相關(guān)的安全測試。

[4] 答案 c. two

解釋：五家工廠中還有兩家在關(guān)閉狀態(tài)。