Study finds Pesticide Residues in Soft Drinks Again

Even after three years and 20 meetings, the bottle of cola in India is not clean of pesticide residues. The Centre of Science and Environment (CSE) claimed that soft drinks were still unsafe and the public health domain in the country was still “severely compromised”.

According to the CSE, which claimed that 11 leading soft drink brands have pesticide residue, soft drinks available in Indian market have a cocktail of three to six different pesticides and the presence of carcinogens and neurotoxins at levels much higher than Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) standards.

The latest CSE study of 57 random samples of 11 soft drink brands from 25 different manufacturing plants of Coke and Pepsi spread over 12 states, including Punjab, Delhi, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, has discovered a cocktail of three to six pesticides in those soft drink brands. On an average, these contents were 24 times higher than the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) norms.

The CSE alleges that the BIS norms have been finalized but "no notification has been given" out to soft drink brands, so far.

CSE director Sunita Narain Says, “In early February 2004, confirming the unsafe levels of pesticides in soft drinks, the Joint Parliamntary Committee (JPC) had directed the government to set standards for these residues in the products.”

“Since then, the BIS has, in its sectional committee, met over 20 times to deliberate on the standards, but in vain," she adds.

The levels of the pesticides contents that the CSE has discovered are even higher than what they found in 2003. Even a prohibited substance like heptachlor was found in 71 per cent of the samples. Moreover, the average level of pesticides found was 11.85 parts per billion, while the standard is 0.5 parts per billion.

In Punjab, samples were gathered from Ludhiana, Faridkot and Amritsar in which the CSE discovered the pesticide residue contents to be 17 to 20 times higher than the permissible BIS limit.

“The levels in some samples, for example Coca Cola bought in Kolkata, exceeded the BIS standards by 140 times for the deadly pesticide Lindane. Similarly, a Coca Cola sample manufactured in Thane contained neuro-toxin Chloropyrifos 200 times the standard,” The study shows.

In 2003, the average level of pesticide residues in Delhi samples was 34 times above the BIS standard.

Three years ago, when the tests were carried out, the CSE could trace out only four pesticides. This time, the number has grew up to five in some cases, says the study “Soft Drinks — Hard Truth II.”

On an average, Pepsi cola contained 30 times higher residues, while the figure was 27 times higher in case of Coca Cola products.

In order to avoid any untoward criticism over the accuracy of their findings, as in the earlier study when the cola companies had raised objections about authenticity of its testing facilities, the CSE laboratory was updated with the highest level of equipment and accredited by the ISO 9001. Thus, this makes it clear that this study was not a feud against soft drink companies, but just a requisition to make products safer for consumers.

At the same time, after the study, the Indian Soft drink Manufacturers Association has responded with the following statement.

"Consumer safety is paramount to us. The soft drinks manufactured in India comply with stringent international norms and all applicable national regulations."