Millers suffered a revenue loss of Rs 6 crore per month as flour demand from noodle makers was significantly impacted by the ban on Maggi, an industry body said today.

Roller Flour Millers’ Federation of India demanded that the Food Corporation of India (FCI) should certify the quality of wheat procured by it as food regulator FSSAI has imposed strict quality regulations.

“Nestle and other instant noodle manufacturers together consume 5 per cent of the total flour (maida) produced by the industry, which is around 3,000 tonnes per month, roughly valued at Rs 6 crore. So, due to ban and quality issues there was no demand from the noodle manufacturers,” the association’s Senior Vice President V K Bansal said.

The FSSAI had in June this year imposed a ban on Maggi noodles. However, the Bombay High Court quashed the order and asked to go for the fresh tests of the products.

Recently, Nestle has resumed the production of Maggi after getting clean chit from the labs which conduct fresh tests of the instant noodles following the directions of the Bombay High Court.

“These days food regulator FSSAI is imposing strict regulations on flour millers related to the quality of flour. And the FCI being the nodal agency of the Centre for procurement and distribution of foodgrains, it should certify the quality of wheat. Because, the quality of flour will depend on quality of wheat,” the federation’s President Hitesh Chandak told reporters here.

He said flours, be it maida or sooji, are the processed product of wheat and therefore its quality will depend on quality of the raw material.

Bansal also informed that the flour millers have imported so far 4.2 lakh tonnes of wheat mainly from Australia as they required top quality wheat for producing flour for pasta and other high valued added food products.

However, he said, it is unlikely that the traders or millers will import wheat following the increase in import duty on wheat.

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