MPs demand cola ban after pesticide claims
Both companies have denied the allegations.
Canteens in the New Delhi parliament stopped selling the soft drinks yesterday after government and opposition MPs, in a rare display of unity, called for further investigations of the report by the Centre for Science and Environment. Health Minister Sushma Swaraj said the findings were startling, and the government had ordered a comprehensive probe of the allegations.
The Centre for Science and Environment said the levels of pesticides in the PepsiCo brands tested were 36 times higher than European Union standards. The centre said the average pesticide level for Coca-Cola products was 30 times higher than EU guidelines.
It acknowledged that Indian brands also have high pesticide levels, because agricultural pesticides are in the country’s ground water, but said the focus was on Coke and Pepsi because they account for more than 75% of the bottled soft drinks consumed in India.
“We tested the two soft drink brands sold in the United States to see if these contained pesticides. They didn’t,” said Sunita Narain, chief of the CSE.
The toxins found in the soft drinks could, if consumed over a long period, cause cancer, damage to the nervous and immune systems, and birth defects, said Narain.
The top executives of the two rival companies at a rare joint news conference rejected the allegations. Calling the report “baseless”, Rajeev Bakshi, head of PepsiCo India, demanded the claims be verified by an independent and accredited laboratory.
Sanjeev Gupta, president and CEO of Coca-Cola India, challenged the assertion that the soft drink sold in India is different from that sold in other countries.
