Nestle has been at the centre of the country’s worst food shock in a decade after a watchdog in Uttar Pradesh in the month of May stated that it detected surplus lead in a packet of the firm’s well known Maggi noodles.

“Task number one is to get Maggi back”.

The company withdrew the brand from Indian stores last month. “That’s an important part of what I will be focussing on”, Narayanan, who took over as new Managing Director of Nestle India five days back, said in an interaction with reporters here.

“But what for me is going to be key is to grow other categories as well: dairy, coffee, confectionery”.

The Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and Nestle India could not arrive at an amicable decision for a fresh independent test on the variants of the banned noodles.

The company’s iconic Maggi noodles – which had a 70 percent market share in its Rs 3,800-crore segment, and which contributed about 30 percent to the company’s revenues – is off the shelves, after it was banned by several state food regulators amid reports it contained unusually high levels of lead and monosodium glutamate.

“…Nestle is a part of this country”.

“My fervent hope is that we are able to find a solution”. It had posted a net profit of Rs 287.86 crore during the April-June quarter of 2014-15.

Nestle company lawyer Iqbal Chhagla said that, the company is agreed for the test, but asked the high court to conduct the test in the presence of a renowned scientist and sample for test should be taken from the company.

When asked if the ban on Maggi has hurt sales of other products of the company, he said there has been impact as the products were sold in the same geography as Maggi.

The appointment of Narayanan, an Indian national who most recently headed Nestle’s operations in the Philippines, was seen as part of a damage-control exercise as Nestle had been criticised for its slow response to a reputation crisis.