The law to regulate the Rs 6,000-crore (Rs 60 billion) soft drink market in India, which as of now has little checks and balances, is expected to be finalised by mid-February, sources said.
However, the implementation of the law will depend on the efficiency and willingness of several ministries, industries, and the Bureau of Indian Standards that sets and monitors norms for food products.
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The CSE in August last year had found high level of pesticides in 12 brands of Coke and PepisCo sold in India.
The two companies dominate the entire soft drink market here.
The Bureau of Indian Standard, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Food and Consumer Affairs, is holding a meeting in New Delhi on February 11 to discuss the JPC guidelines on soft drinks, an official said.
A 40-member committee formed to look into the JPC guidelines will attend the meeting. The members include officials of BIS, CSE, several ministries, and industry lobbies Confederation of Indian Industry and Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Keeping in mind the JPC guidelines, the committee will make a draft proposal for the law to regulate the manufacture of soft drinks. The draft proposal is expected to be passed the same day. This proposal would be sent to the health ministry, an official said.
The ministry of health and family welfare is meeting on February 13 to look into the BIS recommendations and the JPC guidelines for the formation of new laws for soft drinks.
The health ministry is also expected to pass the proposal the same day after which it becomes a law, the official said. The law does not require any Parliamentary approval.
"We have agreed in principle to accept the JPC report in toto," said an official of the health ministry.
Coke and PepsiCo entered India in early 1990s and gradually captured the entire market by buying Indian companies. Unlike other countries, like the United States, the United Kingdom, they have so far been left untouched due to lack of any law pertaining to the quality of soft drinks.
Finding the soft drinks sold here unsafe for consumption, the JPC in its 10,000-page document has recommended stringent laws to ensure safe products to the consumer.
Since the main constituent of soft drinks is water (89 per cent), the industries will now have to use raw water that adheres to the norm of packaged drinking water. The law for packaged drinking water came into force on January 1 this year.
Apart of this, the soft drinks will have to ensure that the finished product is also safe with minimum permissible level of pesticide in it, the JPC report says.
The health ministry will determine the minimum permissible level of pesticide in the new law according to international standards and technology available in India.
Health ministry officials said they would make laws to regulate soft drinks in February but restructure the mechanism to monitor the entire food industry, including soft drinks, fruit juices and other beverages, after the new government is formed in April-May.
Currently the monitoring of food products is spread over several ministries like health, agriculture, water resources and food and consumer affairs.
Once the laws are made, the process of implementation starts. The industries will be given a time frame to upgrade the technology to adhere to the new standards after which the law will come into force.
Chandra Bhushan, coordinator of CSE, said: "Three months time is more than enough to upgrade the technology because these are big companies. But the industries want to delay it as much as possible."