New Delhi: Cola companies have finally reacted to the allegations of harmful levels of pesticide in their products.
Pepsi India chief, Rajiv Bakshi, told CNN-IBN's Economic Policy Editor, Vivian Fernandes, that their products meet all international standards and are safe for consumption. He said Pepsi products were as safe in India as in any other country.
He also said that a standardised testing process is needed, adding that Pepsi is open to any kind of testing for all products and stricter regulations for consumer safety.
Bakshi said that Pepsi was willing to work with the Centre for Science and Environment to establish a validated testing process for all its finished products.
He said that Pepsi has consistently met the European Union's water norms and aggregate residue levels, but demanded the validation of the finished product testing process.
The Coca Cola headquarters in Atlanta has also given a clean chit to their products in India.
Vice president of Technical Stewardship, Rick Frazier, said "There is no issue with the quality and purity of our products."
Frazier said Coke products had been tested at the Central Science Laboratories, an independent laboratory in United Kingdom and they found no problem with the soft drinks made in India.
He said that though there were no detectable standards of pesticides in soft drinks in India, Coca Cola was working with agencies of the Indian government to develop and finalise the standards for pesticide residues in soft drinks.
Last week, the Center for Science and Environment (CSE) in New Delhi said tests conducted on 57 samples of soft drinks sold by Coca-Cola India and PepsiCo India contained high levels of pesticide residues.
CSE has demanded that Coca Cola India disclose the results of its tests.
"We demand that they publish their results over the last three years even the tests they have conducted on their products by EU norms," said CSE associate director, Chandra Bhushan,.
Three years ago, CSE had carried out similar tests and claimed it found the soft drinks sold by Coca-Cola India and PepsiCo India contained pesticide levels that were respectively 30 and 36 times higher than EU standards.
CSE's latest tests last week found the soft drink samples contained pesticide residues 24 times higher than the norm proposed.
The center said almost all soft drinks sold in India contain high levels of pesticides, but the focus was on Coca Cola and PepsiCo because the two account for nearly 80 per cent of India's $2 billion soft drink market.
Several Indian states have since banned the sale of Coke, Pepsi, Sprite and other such soft drinks in schools, colleges and government offices. The southern state of Kerala imposed a total ban on sale and production of the drinks.
India's top business groups warned that the ban could hurt India's image and slow foreign investment flows into the country.
(With inputs from AP)
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