Govt sets up panel to check pesticides in colas

New Delhi, Aug 10: The Government has set up a Committee to look into the report of soft drinks containing pesticides and is planning to set up comprehensive food safety standards to prevent such occurrences in future, Health Minister Ambumani Ramadoss said today.

Speaking on the issue of pesticide contamination in soft drinks in the Rajya Sabha, Dr Ramadoss said the government was also considering banning of cola adverstisements but no decision had been taken yet. He said his ministry was discussing the issue with the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to ban advertisements of colas under the Cable and TV Act just as done in cases of tobacco and alcohol.

Asserting that the government viewed the matter with ''utmost seriousness'' and was committed to protecting the health of the consumers, the Health Minister said his ministry had issued advisories and circulars to the state government so that their health departments could take suitable action on the issue of banning soft drinks.

Reacting to members' demand that the Centre should ban soft drinks in the entire country, he said the Union Government did not want to take any step in haste and hurry. So it has set up a National Level Expert Committee headed by Indian Council of Medical Research Director General N C Ganguly to advise the Central Committee for Food Standards on the issue of pesticide residues.

Denying that setting up of the committee was a delaying tactic, the Health Minister said the expert committee has been asked to give its report within two weeks time. Only after receiving the report and getting the soft drink samples tested in accredited and enabled labs, the government would take a decision. ''We want to do it in a credible and scientific manner so that a firm decision could be taken.'' Emphatically asserting that the government was not under pressure from any cola companies about not banning soft drinks, he said the consumers were the prime concern of his ministry as was proven in the case of ban on tobacco products.

He said samples of water and sugar from soft drink production sites have been lifted and tested in the labs. However, about the testing of concentrates being used for production of soft drinks, the minister said testing them was the responsibility of the cola companies. However, members and Deputy Chairman K Rahman Khan was not satisfied with this explanation.

About the suggestion of popularising 'Palm Cola', he said it was a good suggestion.

Stating that frequent adjournments of the House had prevented him from making the statement, Dr Ramadoss assured that ''India was one of the first countries in the world to fix standards under the Prevention of Food Adulteration for soft drinks manufacturers in as early as 1955.'' The standards provided that the water used in making soft drinks should conform to the standards prescribed for packaged drinking water. ''These standards also provide microbiological requirements, maximum metal contaminants and declaration of added sugars, various food additives including caffeine, artificial sweeteners and food acids.'' About the Joint Parliamentary Committee's findings into the earlier instance of pesticides contamination in 2003, it was of the view that the sugar content was already purified using the hot carbon treatment process which was effective in reducing the pesticide level to below detectable level or below 0.1 ppb levels, Dr Ramadoss said quoting from the JPC's observations.

Regarding the concentrate used by the manufacturers, the latter had stated that the quality of concentrate used was the same as used in other countries.

However, the Health Ministry had commissioned a pilot study of 200 sugar samples in September 2005. The report had been received from the Bidhan Chandra Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Mohanpur in Kolkata, and a peer review was expected shortly, he added.

UNI

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