Nestlé’s ‘Maggi’ aims at educating people with healthy eating habits
While today’s youth are very conscious on what they consume to live a balanced healthy lifestyle, it takes quite some time to educate the people as to what goes in the manufacturing process of any food product. Word of mouth and misconceptions have moved brands from bad to worse in the past and it continues to happen today via social media.
On the other hand there are also people who read the label at the back of any food product they purchase from supermarkets, which is a sign that they want to know their nutrition intake.
Recently Nestlé’s Maggi took the media including the Business Times on a factory tour to Pannala in Kurunegala.
Adding MSG (Monosodium Glutamate – an artificial flavour) was one of the major topics during the factory visit and the management proved and it was witnessed that no more MSG is added into Maggi since 2016 due to the consumer’s request. But MSG is available in countries such as Malaysia as it is proven not harmful to health.
Nestle Lanka PLC, Vice President for Foods, Priyadarshinie Karunaratne spoke to the Business Times during the factory visit. She said, “Educating the people with healthy eating habits is the aim of Maggi. How Maggi could be prepared with other nutrients and proteins and a balanced meal could be prepared. Cooking can be made different by creating good food moments.” Today’s younger generation is thinking differently. They check for ingredients and nutrition levels. “We want to pass the knowledge of cooking to our people,” she added.
Maggi is manufactured just like how string hoppers is prepared. Wheat flour, water and salt are mixed and a thin layer of the mix is sent through different chambers. First it’s steamed, then dried, sent through a cooling condenser and finally packed. During the drying process the expiry date of Maggi is calculated.
The sachet packet that is included inside the packet of Maggi plays a major role. Sri Lanka’s traditional spices and herbs such as coriander, cardamom, turmeric, cumin seed, black pepper, nutmeg, fenugreek, aniseed, chilli, garlic, ginger, rampe and curry leaves are chopped into tiny pieces to give the flavour to Maggi.
The manufacturing process sounds simple but high quality standards are maintained within the factory premises. 300 quality checks are done daily on a batch of Maggi packets and global quality standards are followed, according to the technical staff at the factory.
Nestlé Lanka Managing Director, Fabrice Cavallin said, “Today’s consumers seek more information about products than ever before. Maggi has a tremendous equity in Sri Lanka and has always been consumer-centric. We want to uphold the trust our consumers have placed in the brand for generations and are proud to empower consumers to learn more about how their favourite Maggi noodles is made.”