Calcutta, July 13: Nestle India is expected to contend in court that the Calcutta-based laboratory, whose report was central to the ban on Maggi noodles, was not accredited to carry out tests to determine the presence of lead in cereals and spices, sources associated with the company said.

Nestle India is contesting the ban in Bombay High Court, which has not yet stayed the recall order but permitted the company to export Maggi if the safety regulations are met.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the national food regulator, had cited the finding of the Central Food Laboratory, Calcutta, in a June 5 directive that ordered the recall of Maggi noodles. The regulator had said the Calcutta lab had put the presence of lead in the sample from Uttar Pradesh at 17.2 parts per million (ppm) - against the maximum permissible limit of 2.5ppm.

The FSSAI had cited tests conducted by other labs also but the Calcutta finding had drawn the maximum attention because tests of samples collected in Uttar Pradesh - from where the controversy originated - were conducted in the eastern facility.

The Telegraph had reported on June 6 that the accreditation of the central lab in Calcutta had expired on March 18 this year.# Accreditation can be renewed after the expiry but at that time, it was not clear whether the Maggi sample was tested before or after the expiry of the accreditation for the high-precision tests.

However, what the sources close to Nestle are claiming now is that the lab's expired accreditation did not at all cover tests to determine the presence of lead in cereal-based products and spices, under which Maggi noodles and its Tastemaker fall.

This newspaper tried to corroborate the claim with the central Calcutta lab, the accreditation agency and the national food regulator. But officials at the three agencies said they could comment on record only after scrutinising documents. One official at the Calcutta lab disputed the sources' claim and said it had the accreditation to test lead.

V.K. Pandey, the designated officer with the Uttar Pradesh Food and Drug Administration in Barabanki, said: "The samples were sent to CFL (the Calcutta lab) which is a referral food laboratory - we cannot comment on whether the lab was specifically accredited to perform tests to look for lead."

Under the Food Safety and Standards Act of 2006, the accreditation agency for such tests is the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL).

The NABL issues an accreditation certificate that shows a unique number, a hologram, the discipline, the date of validity and the scope of accreditation.

Under the head "specific test performed", the ingredients that can be detected through the tests are listed.

According to documents shown by the sources close to Nestle, the Calcutta lab's papers of accreditation, which was valid from December 17, 2013, to March 18, 2015, do not mention "lead". The papers mention calcium, sodium, potassium, phosphorous, manganese, arsenic, cadmium and chromium.

That lead is not mentioned does not mean that the Calcutta lab does not have the ability to test for the metal content. But if the lab had no accreditation to test for lead in cereals and spices, the test results would lose credibility. If Nestle can prove that the papers are authentic and the NABL had not accredited the specific test through which the Calcutta lab found lead in the Maggi sample, the very basis on which Maggi was banned could come under stress.

The NABL accreditation for Edward Food Research & Analysis Centre (EFRAC), the Barasat-based private lab whose tests of Maggi samples did not throw up anything beyond the permissible limit, does mention "lead" along with several other materials.

However, the national regulator had told the court that "no value can be attributed to these tests (by private labs) to oppose the statutory tests (done by the central lab in Calcutta)".

The NABL accreditation is not a general licence for a laboratory to perform any test. "The accreditation covers each specific test and each specific food substance that the laboratory is accredited for," said Deepa Bhajekar, a Mumbai-based food scientist who has over 15 years' experience testing food samples for various contaminants. "For example, if a laboratory is accredited to test for lead in one food substance, it does not automatically get accredited for testing lead in another food substance."

The NABL accreditation is intended to minimise the likely sources of errors in test results. Food testing specialists say there are multiple potential sources of errors that can influence test results - calibration of measuring instruments, the quality of water used and the purity of chemicals used in the tests. Food safety officers had pointed out earlier that the Calcutta lab had inexplicably run out of Maggi noodles and had requested Uttar Pradesh to send another sample. Pandey, the Uttar Pradesh official, today said he had initially sent 70gm of the sample of noodles to the Calcutta lab and another 70gm when requested by the lab.

It is unclear why or under what circumstances the lab had run out of the 70gm noodles it had first received. Food safety scientists say about 10gm is sufficient to test for lead.

Additional reporting by G.S. Mudur in New Delhi