Government seeks damages from Swiss food giant after banning Maggi noodles for containing unsafe levels of lead.

India’s government is seeking damages of nearly $100m from Nestle India for “unfair trade practices” after the food safety regulator banned its hugely popular Maggi noodles brand in June for containing unsafe levels of lead.

The government said on Wednesday that it has filed a suit with the country’s top consumer court, National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC), for 6,400 million rupees ($98.6m) in damages from the Indian arm of the Swiss food giant.

“Our complaint is over their unfair trade practices and the court will now issue them notices to hear their response,” G Gurcharan, additional secretary at the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, told AFP news agency.

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In April, laboratory tests ordered by some state governments found the noodles contained far higher levels of lead than legally allowed. The tests also detected the flavour enhancer chemical monosodium glutamate, or MSG, which is not mentioned in the product’s list of ingredients.

In a statement on Wednesday, Nestle said the company has “a stringent programme” to test the ingredients in its noodles.

“In recent months, we had over 2,700 samples of MAGGI Noodles tested by several accredited laboratories both in India and abroad. Each one of these tests have shown lead to be far below the permissible limits,” the statement said.

Nestle India is challenging the ban on Maggi noodles in the Mumbai high court, which is expected to deliver its verdict on Thursday.

We do not add MSG to MAGGI Noodles & there was never any intention to mislead consumers. Full statement http://t.co/278R4MtDTi (3/4) — Nestlé India (@NestleIndia) August 12, 2015

Maggi noodles are a hugely popular snack and Nestle’s “two-minute” advertising campaign stressing the ease of preparing the food have made it a household name in India.

The noodles were Nestle’s fastest-selling food item in India, accounting for about 15 billion rupees ($240m) in sales annually.

Nestle India said earlier it would destroy instant noodles worth 3.2 billion rupees ($50m) following the sales ban.