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Coke, Pepsi to join hands against EU quality norms
New Delhi, Aug 15: US majors Pepsico and Coca-Cola today joined hands to caution against `blind` adoption of European norms as these could have serious implications on Indian economy, while asserting compliance with EU standards for their brand products sold in the country.
New Delhi, Aug 15: US majors Pepsico and Coca-Cola today joined hands to caution against "blind" adoption of European norms as these could have serious implications on Indian economy, while asserting compliance with EU standards for their brand products sold in the country.
"There are no standards for pesticides in soft drinks anywhere in the US or European union. EU norms only specify that the water used in soft drinks should be potable.....We
are meeting EU norms on source water in India with total pesticide levels well below the permissible 0.5PPB," chairman of Pepsico India holdings Rajeev Bakshi said here.
He said blindly adopting EU standards is an ill-conceived strategy, fraught with risk both in qualitative and quantitative terms for a developing country like India which would make 90 per cent of its groundnut crop inedible, liquid milk undrinkable and processed milk products unusable. Taking the Centre for Science and Environment to task, Bakshi said, "We have sufficient doubts that CSE's report is erroneous. It has used suspect testing methods...It has created panic."
A Coca-Cola spokesperson said, "Our products are of unimpeachable quality not only in India but across the world. If the government decides to bring in any new norms, we will comply with those too."
Bakshi said the lab used by CSE was neither accredited nor recognised, and could not have helped with cross-references of results arrived at in a particular lab. Making a case against aping the EU, he said, "Is the EU, the repository of all knowledge? Are they the only 'consumer friendly' standards setting organisation worldwide?"
Hitting out at the CSE, he said it claims to have used the USEPA 8141A method to arrive at its results but there are serious deviations from the standardised test methodology.
The actual properties adopted to conduct the tests do not match the USEPA prescribed procedures.
Furthermore, the USEPA 8141A method is prescribed for testing water and not soft drinks, he said adding this can lead to erroneous conclusions because a number of ingredients are added in water to manufacture a soft drink.
He said the CSE had benchmarked the alleged presence of pesticides in 'soft drinks' against the permissible limits in the EU for 'water'.
The CSE report focuses on detection of increased levels of four pesticides in the soft drinks brands but fails to elaborate on the limit upto which its intake by humans is safe.
Hazard identification is only one of the four aspects detailed by the who, others being hazard analysis, characterisation and safe dose level for humans.
"Allowable residue levels for the same four pesticides in other product categories strangely are significantly higher. CSE report says nothing about this at all," Bakshi said. Bureau Report
He said blindly adopting EU standards is an ill-conceived strategy, fraught with risk both in qualitative and quantitative terms for a developing country like India which would make 90 per cent of its groundnut crop inedible, liquid milk undrinkable and processed milk products unusable. Taking the Centre for Science and Environment to task, Bakshi said, "We have sufficient doubts that CSE's report is erroneous. It has used suspect testing methods...It has created panic."
A Coca-Cola spokesperson said, "Our products are of unimpeachable quality not only in India but across the world. If the government decides to bring in any new norms, we will comply with those too."
Bakshi said the lab used by CSE was neither accredited nor recognised, and could not have helped with cross-references of results arrived at in a particular lab. Making a case against aping the EU, he said, "Is the EU, the repository of all knowledge? Are they the only 'consumer friendly' standards setting organisation worldwide?"
Hitting out at the CSE, he said it claims to have used the USEPA 8141A method to arrive at its results but there are serious deviations from the standardised test methodology.
The actual properties adopted to conduct the tests do not match the USEPA prescribed procedures.
Furthermore, the USEPA 8141A method is prescribed for testing water and not soft drinks, he said adding this can lead to erroneous conclusions because a number of ingredients are added in water to manufacture a soft drink.
He said the CSE had benchmarked the alleged presence of pesticides in 'soft drinks' against the permissible limits in the EU for 'water'.
The CSE report focuses on detection of increased levels of four pesticides in the soft drinks brands but fails to elaborate on the limit upto which its intake by humans is safe.
Hazard identification is only one of the four aspects detailed by the who, others being hazard analysis, characterisation and safe dose level for humans.
"Allowable residue levels for the same four pesticides in other product categories strangely are significantly higher. CSE report says nothing about this at all," Bakshi said. Bureau Report