Nestle noodle crisis shows long road for India's food safety

New Delhi

THE man who helped spark one of India's largest food recalls - prompting Nestle SA's top executive to rush to New Delhi last week - says government authorities lack the resources for widespread inspections.

VK Pandey's team in Uttar Pradesh, India's largest state, randomly picked about a dozen packs of Nestle's Maggi instant noodles for a series of tests. The results showed that lead levels breached official limits, triggering a recall across a swathe of India and import bans in Nepal and Singapore.

"We would've sent more samples of Maggi, bu…