The Hindu Business Line : `Don't subject Pepsico products to random testing'

The Chairman of Pepsico India Holdings Pvt Lt, Mr Rajeev Bakshi, has said that till the Ministry of Health announces a standard testing method in April 2007, its products must not be subject to random testing by various agencies.

"There is no testing method anywhere in the world to analyse finished products. But the Ministry of Health has said it would validate a test method. Till such time (April 2007), do not impose any test methods on our products. Instead go by the input aggregate method," said Mr Bakshi. This involves "analysing each input (ingredient), which goes into soft drinks for pesticide residue and aggregating the same," which should then be compared with the permissible limit.

According to a company release: "Our results indicate that we are consistently within the most stringent 0.5 ppb limit of total pesticide residue (EU norms)... We recognise that our results are very different from those reported by the Centre for Science and Environment. While we believe in the science of our approach, we would welcome the opportunity to meet with CSE and any other interested party to discuss details of our methods and gain a clearer understanding of theirs."

Pepsi also pointed to a test conducted by Vimta Labs, Hyderabad that found pesticide residues of over 0.5 ppb in certain brands of products such as biscuit, tea, coffee, wheat atta and ghee.

On whether the pesticide controversy has impacted sales, Mr Bakshi said it was too early to say. In response to the ban on soft drink sales in educational institutions, he said, "Globally, we do not encourage consumption of soft drinks in primary schools. We do not push for sales in schools, which form only a miniscule part of our sales."

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