Have our drinks been tested ?
LankaBuzz
contains such poisons. If this is happening in India, I would wonder
about our operations .
Ok lets assume coke and pepsi are ok, what about all these new small
companies opening up ? Are they keeping with the standards ?
Who will check on this for the consumer ?
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Pesticides still found in Coke, Pepsi: Indian study
Wed Aug 2, 2006
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - An environmental group said on Wednesday bottles
of Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. soft drinks in India still contained
traces of pesticide, highlighting weak food safety laws in the country.
"If soft drinks are the choice of millions, the least that can be
done is that these drinks are regulated," said Sunita Narain,
director of the Delhi-based Center for Science and Environment (CSE),
at a news conference.
A 2003 study by CSE briefly dented the companies' sales when it said
it found levels of pesticide in the companies' soft drinks in excess
of international standards.
That study was endorsed by India's parliament though the soft drink
majors said at the time the drinks were safe to consume and they
repeated their stand on Wednesday.
But despite government vows of introducing legal limits for toxins in
soft drinks, not enough had been done since 2003, CSE said.
The group called upon consumers to avoid drinking Coke and Pepsi and
other soft drink brands produced by the two U.S. firms until they
cleaned up the product.
The Indian Soft Drink Manufacturers Association, of which PepsiCo and
Coca-Cola are members, said the soft drinks were safe to consume.
"The soft drinks manufactured in India comply with stringent
international norms and all applicable national regulations," the
industry body said in a statement.
The CSE said that pesticides are also present in other foods and drinks
routinely consumed by Indians.
The new study found three to five different pesticides in 57 samples of
Coca-Cola and PepsiCo drinks produced in 12 Indian states, CSE said.
The average amount of pesticide residues found in the samples was 11.85
parts per billion (ppb), 24 times higher than the permitted limit of
0.5 ppb recently drafted - but not yet implemented- by the Bureau
of Indian Standards, a government agency that sets safety and hygiene
standards for commercial products.
In some cases, the levels were up to 200 times the limit.
The study in 2003 found pesticide residues on average 34 times higher
than the 0.5ppb limit.
Officials at the Ministry of Health were unavailable for comment on the
CSE report
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
http://go.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=13056383&src=UK_DskTopTkr/GetContent
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