Maggi noodles had 17x the legal lead — India banned the nation's favourite snack overnight

Maggi noodles were a cultural institution in India — Nestlé had sold the instant noodle brand there for over three decades, dominating the $2 billion Indian snack-food market with 80% share. In June 2015, India's food safety regulator (FSSAI) found that Maggi noodles contained lead at 17.2 parts per million, more than 17 times the legal limit of 1.0 ppm. Some samples also contained undeclared monosodium glutamate (MSG), which Nestlé had claimed was absent from the product.

The response was immediate and devastating. India banned Maggi noodles nationwide, declaring them unsafe. The Delhi government filed a class-action lawsuit, and Nestlé was forced to destroy over 30,000 tonnes (400 million packets) — the largest food product recall in Indian history.

The financial impact was severe: Nestlé India reported a $60 million loss in the quarter following the ban, and Maggi's market share collapsed from 80% to near zero. Nestlé relaunched in November 2015 after courts lifted the ban, spending heavily on a PR campaign. Though the brand eventually recovered much of its share, the incident cost Nestlé billions in lost sales, destroyed inventory, and legal fees.