Thursday, June 4, 2015

Childhood Favorite Food in an Arduous Journey..!!

Those days, when we used to reach home at 5pm after a difficult day at school and rush to mom asking for a quick 2minute snack 'Maggi'. Remember? Now, that favorite snack of ours is at high-level risk and almost every state in India is placing a ban on it one after the other.

What happened to our "two-minute snack" all of a sudden? Why is the government taking such a serious step towards this product? Well, the reasons are quite fair enough if they are true. It is containing high lead levels(a chemical element in the carbon group). This is a high risk factor for our health and it will end up with serious health issues in future.

Maggi gave a statement saying that, it is having the lead levels were well within the limits allowed by food regulations. But, Why is 'lead' being used in the food which we consume? Well, there are many reasons for this.
Lead is produced by  Human activities such as mining, manufacturing, and the burning of fossil fuels are the major sources of environmental lead. It is also a metal found in small amounts in the earth. It doesn't have any special taste or smell. Food can contain lead if lead-containing dust gets onto crops while they are growing or during food processing. Lead can also get into food through food containers. On the other hand, Lead is sometimes added to food intentionally as an additive. For example, in the traditional way of manufacturing lime-preserved eggs (also known as thousand-year-old eggs), although alternative methods using copper or zinc compounds are now available.

It is still unclear on how the Maggi noodle samples might have allegedly been contaminated. Food experts say that, the way noodles are processed could have theoretically exposed them to lead. Also, the water used to manufacture the noodles could be one of the source for contamination, Uday Annapure(an associate professor of the department of food engineering and technology at the Institute of Chemical Technology in Mumbai) said.

What happens if we consume Lead? It has been shown to cause neurological disorders, reproductive problems, diminished intelligence and a host of other illness. Also, short term exposure to high levels of lead can cause abdominal pain, vomiting and anemia, whereas chronic low-level exposure can cause retarded cognitive and intellectual development in children. Infant, young children and fetus are more sensitive to toxic effects of lead, especially in regard to the damages to their central nervous system.
This is the reason, why Indian government is taking some serious action towards Nestle group and banning maggi across the country.

So children, beware of Maggi until it gets a clean unleaded certificate.