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Colas Do Have Pesticides: Health Ministry
CNN-IBN
March 15, 2007
New Delhi: The Health Ministry on Wednesday submitted an affidavit
in the Supreme Court admitting that there are pesticide residues in
cold drinks.
The N K Ganguly Committee, set up to study the issue of pesticide
content in colas, suggested that a committee be set up to look into
the issue of food safety.
The Health Ministry also told the apex court that the Committee had
suggested that there are certain pesticides, which have to be monitored
for a period for three years
After the Health Ministry came out with that affidavit, Coca-Cola
India has come out with an official statement.
In its press release, the company says, "Our products are safe and
the analysis of the products for the pesticide residue is available
on our website. We have always supported the setting up of standards
on pesticide residue in soft drinks and welcome the move in that direction."
The Ganguly Committee was set up after Delhi-based NGO Centre for
Science and Environment revealed that new tests have detected dangerous
level of toxins in colas.
A similar CSE report in 2003 had led to a joint Parliamentary probe
into the matter. Four years later, the NGO again went public with
the findings of its studies, claiming that soft drinks were still
not clean.
It claimed that compared to 2003, Pepsi contained 30 times higher
pesticide residue on an average and Coca-Cola contained 27 times higher
residue.
The NGO claimed that it found three to five different kinds of pesticide
residues in all the 57 samples of 11 soft drink brands that it had
collected from 25 different manufacturing plants of Coca-Cola and
PepsiCo, spread over 12 states.
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