Mumbai High Court lifts nationwide ban on Nestle's Maggi noodles

The High Court in Mumbai Thursday lifted a nationwide ban on the sale of Swiss food giant Nestle's Maggi noodles, nearly two months after India's food regulator banned the popular snack as "hazardous and unsafe for human consumption."

"Maggi noodles are not banned anymore in the country. Principles of natural justice have not been followed in announcing the ban," the High Court said in its order, but adding a rider that new tests are required to prove that the popular snack does not contain excess lead.

The High Court's ruling came one day ahead of a hearing in the country's top consumer court on the Indian government's claim for 99 million U.S. dollars in damages from Nestle.

Over 2,700 samples of Maggi noodles have been tested by laboratories in India and abroad in recent months, and each test confirmed the level of lead to be "far below permissible limits," Nestle said in a statement.

In June, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India banned the snack after excessive amounts of lead and monosodium glutamate were found in samples tested at a laboratory in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.