Pepsico moots centralised testing for pesticide

Lucknow, Sep 13: Pepsico India, manufacturer of Pepsi in India, today mooted centralised testing facilities in the country for soft drinks to check pesticide residue.

''We are open for more stringent regulations in the interest of the consumers and all the testing norms should be for the ingredients, than the finished products,'' said Pepsico executive director (exports and external affairs) Abhiram Seth here.

Addressing a press conference Mr Seth claimed Pepsi products comply with most stringent Indian and international regulations, including the new regulations for carbonated soft drinks notified by the Union Health Ministry on July 15, 2004.

Stressing the need for a central testing method for all the beverages, he said there had been different opinions on different tests, creating more confusion amongst the consumers.

Hinting that the recent controversy over pesticides levels in soft drinks has ''not helped Pepsi in its sales growth,'' Mr Seth claimed that ''our results indicate that we are consistently within the most stringent 0.5 PPB (Pesticides Per Billion) limit of total pesticide residue as per the European Union water norms.

Admitting that Pepsico is already working with the government on all such issues, he said the company was also open to work with Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and any other interested party to establish more stringent science-based standards on finished products. ''We think the test reports should be valid only if there is an accurate, validated and agreed upon detection method to verify compliance'', he said.

UNI