The Centre for Science and Environment on Thursday alleged that the government was slowing down the Bureau of Indian Standards in its bid to come out with standards for pesticides in soft drinks at the behest of the cola companies.
"The government is bending over backwards to accommodate the cola companies' tactics to delay the standards for soft drinks, finds CSE," the environmental watchdog said in a release issued on Thursday.
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Soft drinks, hard truths
In support of its allegation, CSE pasted two letters on its website (www.cseindia.org), one from PepsiCo India CEO Rajeev Bakshi to the ministry of health and the other from the ministry of health to the ministry of consumer affairs.
It quoted Bakshi's letter in the release as saying: "We would also request you as the entire issue of food safety falls under the purview of your ministry to use your good offices to ensure that BIS does not set standards which apart from not helping safety and hygiene in any manner are non-implementable and totally uncalled for."
The second letter from the ministry of health asks the ministry of consumer affairs to take note of this concern raised by Bakshi.
When contacted, a PepsiCo spokesperson said: "On July 15, 2004, the health ministry had come out with the best in class, most stringent international standards being followed anywhere in the world including the European Union.
"Our products conform and will always conform to these highest standards."
The standards notified by the health ministry were the same as the EU standards: any singe pesticide should not be more than 0.1 parts per billion in a soft drink package and all pesticides shouldn't add up to more than 0.5 ppb.
The standards being worked out by BIS have used another yardstick: since soft drinks are made up almost 90 per cent of water, the norms for water should also be applicable to soft drinks.
But this has been contested by the cola companies on the grounds that soft drinks are more than just water. It was in this context that several participants in the debate had
Going the cola way
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Posts two letters one from PepsiCo India CEO Rajeev Bakshi to the ministry of health and the other from the ministry of health to the ministry of consumer affairs.
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The standards notified by the health ministry were the same as the EU standards
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Any singe pesticide should not be more than 0.1 parts per billion in a soft drink package and all pesticides shouldn't add up to more than 0.5 ppb
- The standards being worked out by BIS say that since soft drinks are made up almost 90 per cent of water, the norms for water should also be applicable to soft drinks
