Now, insects found in Nestle Cerelac baby powder

Nestle's troubles in India only seem to be growing; after the food safety authorities in Uttar Pradesh and elsewhere discovered excessive quantities of lead and MSG in Nestle India's Maggi instant noodles, the controversy over its NanPro 3 milk powder, now reports from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu allege that insects have been found in a packet of Nestle Cerelac baby food.

Reports said IT professional S Sriram brought home a packet of Nestle Cerelac from in a medical shop in Selvapuram, Coimbatore last Sunday for his one-year-old son.

When his wife opened the packet on Monday, she found live insects inside the sealed packet.

Incidentally, the packet had February 2016 as the expiry date.

Sriram filed a complaint with the food safety department on Tuesday, and the milk powder was sent to the government food laboratory for testing.

Food and safety official told reporters that they have collected more samples and will soon be sending them to labs for testing. Any further action will follow after the results are received.

Officials suspect the worms, which look like weevils, might have come from infested wheat and multiplied inside the packets.

"These worms have a way of penetrating into the wheat grain and laying an egg inside it and leaving. When the wheat is crushed, the eggs hatch," say the officials.  

Food safety officials in Coimbatore said they visited the pharmacy from where Sriram had bought the product.

They also visited the wholesale dealer from whom the pharmacist had procured the stock. However, they were unable to find stocks from the same batch, they added.