Fix standards for soft drinks, CSE urges Govt.

Following the Central Government's admission before the Supreme Court that soft drinks in India do contain pesticides, the Center for Science and Environment (CSE) has urged that the government must agree on the need for fixing mandatory standards for the drinks.

"The government's own committee had found pesticides in the products," Sunita Narain, director of the New Delhi–based NGO, said.

Earlier, March 14, the Central Government had admitted before the Supreme Court that there were pesticide residues in colas produced and sold in India.

"We believe that the government must agree on fixing the total amount of pesticide that should be in the soft drinks," Narain said.

Citing the report of the NK Ganguly Committee, set up by the Center to finalize the standards for soft drinks, she said that the government should fix the pesticide limit.

"While we welcome the report of Ganguly Committee, it should put the matter to rest. Now it's very clear that there are pesticides in soft drinks," Narain said.

The CSE, in its study titled "Soft Drinks, Hard Truth II," had said that soft drinks in Delhi contained high levels of pesticides.

It claimed that Pepsi contained 30 times more pesticide residue on an average and Coca Cola had 27 times higher compared to results in 2003.

Referring to the clarifications issued by cola giants, she said that CSE has shown repeatedly that the companies do not follow any standards.

"This is why the government's own committee has found pesticides in the products," Narain added.

She said CSE does not favour total ban on colas or soft drinks.

"We are asking the standards to be set up and benchmarking what is safe level of pesticide which we can be expose to," she said, adding, "We should understand that we have lot of pesticides in our food products and things that we eat but those are essential part of our diet."

"We should reduce pesticide from essential products while we must minimize pesticides from non–essential products like soft drinks," she added.

Reacting to movie stars, cricketers and other celebrities endorsing cola products, she said they should keep in mind that they are not just brand ambassadors for companies but also role models.

"It's very clear that these companies have repeatedly put up filmstar after filmstar to cajole people and tell them that there are no pesticides in their product and they are safe," Narain stated.

"When they endorse the product they must be clear that these companies are not as clean as they say they are," she said.