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By Bloomberg

Nestle India Ltd. slid as much as 3.3 percent to the lowest in a month after a complaint was filed in a local court over lead levels in its Maggi instant noodles.

A court in Uttar Pradesh state sent a notice to Nestle and a trial is due from July 1 after tests found high lead levels in some noodle samples, said V.K. Pandey, an official at the state’s Food Safety and Drug Administration. The stock closed down 1.2 percent at 6,670.20 rupees versus the S&P BSE Sensex’s 0.1 percent rise. It earlier slid as low as 6,530.95 rupees.

Nestle, one of India’s biggest processed food makers, said May 21 it has stringent quality controls and that tests consistently showed lead levels in Maggi noodles were within allowed limits. Pandey said two rounds of testing -- first in an Uttar Pradesh state laboratory and then at the Central Food Laboratory in Kolkata -- found high levels of lead in samples collected from Barabanki district.

Any erosion of consumer trust could be “significant” for Nestle India, which gets about 15 percent to 20 percent of Indian revenues from instant noodles, Nitin Mathur, a consumer research analyst at Societe Generale SA, wrote in an e-mail.

Maggi noodles are a mainstay in northern India, featuring routinely on menus in restaurants and food stalls.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India expects to receive later today the results from tests on some Maggi samples, Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said in New Delhi. Class-action lawsuits in the event of safety violations are possible, he said.

Nestle India spokesman Himanshu Manglik did not respond to an e-mail and a call to his mobile phone.

The shares have gained 4.5 percent this year, compared with the 1.3 percent advance in the Sensex. Nestle India trades at about 40 times projected 12-month earnings, higher than the S&P BSE Fast-Moving Consumer Goods Index’s multiple of 32.