Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Oct 21, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Oct 21, 2003 |
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Industry & Economy
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Beverages Marketing - Standards & Benchmarks Pesticides in soft drinks — Industry may present views to JPC today Our Bureau
New Delhi , Oct. 20 THE industry perspective on the alleged pesticide presence in soft drinks and other food products is expected to be heard on Tuesday, when representatives from the three chambers of commerce depose before the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) set up to look into the issue. Industry sources told Business Line that the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) would give the industry perspective on the issue. A top brass with one of the cola companies told this correspondent that individual companies are not expected to make a presentation, since they are members of different chambers. This is the third round of meetings of the JPC, set up in the wake of the controversy that broke when the New Delhi-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) Centre For Science and Environment (CSE) alleged that top soft drink brands belonging to the Coca-Cola and PepsiCo stables contained pesticide residues. Today was day one of the JPC's third round of meetings, where the panel queried the two Government-owned laboratories - the Mysore-based Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) and the Kolkata-based Central Food Laboratory (CFL). The two labs, under the aegis of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), had been appointed by the Union Health Ministry to test soft drink samples in the wake of the controversy erupting in August. According to the agencies, the labs were questioned by the JPC on why their sample test results on pesticide residues in soft drinks were different from those conducted by the CSE. The officials representing the labs are believed to have said that the findings were different since the samples tested were not the same as those tested by the CSE. Significantly, CFTRI had found that only three of the 12 samples tested for pesticide residues - Limca, Pepsi and Diet Pepsi - were below the permissible limits for pesticides, set by European Union (EU) norms. Interestingly, the CFL report was also on similar lines, clearing the same three of the 12 soft drink brands that were tested. This, however, was contrary to claims made by the cola top brass that all their brands met EU norms.
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