The Karnataka government is going to feed Maggi noodles to cement factory.

As per the June 12 directive of the centre, Karnataka’s department of food safety will destroy hundreds of tonnes of Maggi noodles at the Wadi cement factory furnaces in Kalaburagi district in north Karnataka.

The transportation cost will be borne by Nestle India. The Centre had issued a directive on June 12 to destroy Maggi stocks.

The state government officials are claiming that this method will not cause pollution.  The burning of stock collected from the Karnataka will take place in next five days.

Karnataka has also sent Maggi noodle samples to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, Kolkata after the sample tests and retest conducted at some private labs in Bengaluru did show any excess lead content in the noodles.

Meanwhile, Nestle's Indian unit said it would take a hit of more than Rs 320 crore from the continuing withdrawal and destruction of its Maggi instant noodles.

Nestle India said the estimated sales value of the stock in the market was worth around Rs 210 crore. It also has Maggi noodles and related products in its factories and distribution centres worth Rs 110 crore.

"There will be additional costs to take into account, for example bringing stock from the market, transporting stock to destruction points," Nestle said in a statement. Nestle withdrew all varieties of Maggi noodles on June 5.

The company said it would deal with the associated costs at the time of reporting results. Nestle India reported its March quarter results on May 15.

As a further blow to the company, Australia has temporarily suspended import of Maggi noodles from India. The Department of Agriculture of the Australian government has issued a "holding order" against Maggi as precautionary measures on June 11.

"The purpose of this notice is to advise that the department has applied a holding order to Maggi brand noodles (Maggi noodles) from India. This is a precautionary measure in response to reports of levels of lead that are potentially non-compliant with the permissible levels in the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code (the Code)," Australian department of agriculture said in the notice.

This would apply to all Maggi noodles imported to Australia from India, it said.