The Hindu Business Line : CFTRI favours standards for all beverages

From orange juice to colas, every beverage that is bottled should perhaps be brought under specified standards and the manufacturers made to comply. It is also necessary that the protocol for testing the ingredients be specified.

Suggesting that the standards should be transparent, Dr V. Prakash, a leading food expert and Director of the Mysore-based Central Food Technology Research Institute (CFTRI), also favoured some self-regulation by the producers of beverages.

On the ongoing controversy on pesticide residues in colas, Dr Prakash said it was time "We stopped resorting to knee-jerk reactions. We should quickly put in place standards, lay down the methodology for testing, and take stringent action on violations." The CFTRI has not been approached for testing of any samples for determining pesticide residues in colas this time, Dr Prakash told Business Line here.

He felt the Integrated Food Law cleared by both Houses of Parliament in July and awaiting assent from the President, is a move in the right direction to lay down regulations for food products in the country.

The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), set up three years ago, after the pesticide residues in colas controversy erupted, had made a good number of recommendations. If these were implemented, several issues surrounding the controversy would be laid to rest, he said.

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CFTRI favours standards for all beverages