WAR OF WORDS: (from left to right) Asim Parikh, vice-president, Coca Cola, Prof. John Gilbert, Science Director (Food), Central Science Laboratory, D.V. Darshane, Director, Quality Policy & Standards, The Coca-Cola Company, Atlanta , U.S. and Stewart Reynolds, Central Science Laboratory address a press conference in New Delhi on Monday. — Photo: SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY

NEW DELHI: Stung by the raging controversy over the presence of higher levels of pesticides in their soft drinks and its long and short-term ramifications for their business, global beverage majors Pepsico and Coca Cola on Monday separately launched counter-offensives. Pepsico demanded development of a scientific and acceptable testing protocol before stipulating finished products standards.

Coca Cola presented the top brass of the U.K. Government's Central Science Laboratory (CSL) to assert that its products are safe for human consumption.

Prof. John Gilbert, Science Director (Food) of the CSL who presented the laboratory's findings giving its soft drinks a clean chit and virtually declaring them fit for human consumption.

The findings were controverted in no time by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) that stirred the controversy alleging presence of higher levels of pesticide.

The CSE came out with a statement saying that the clean chit given for the soft drinks by the CSL was "completely untenable." It made an issue of the fact that the company had commissioned the CSL to test the samples supplied by it and also refuted the charge that the CSE was not capable of testing the company's products.

Earlier, announcing the results of tests of soft drinks made by the Coca-Cola Company in India, Prof. Gilbert said, "We detected no residues of the four pesticides allegedly found in the products by the Centre for Science and Environment."

The CSL's tests on all of the soft drink brands in the product range reported less than 0.1 parts per billion of each of these four pesticides. "Further there is no discernible difference between the Indian products and those manufactured elsewhere in the world," he added.

Volunteering an explanation for differing results, Steward Reynolds, head of the Analytical Services Unit of the CSL, said it was not possible to comment on this without access to CSE's raw data, their exact methodology and standard operating procedures.

"With that caveat, we have said that CSE's written report does not provide confirmation of identity of the pesticide residues claimed to be found. There is no evidence in the report that, even if the pesticides were present, the levels were measured with any accuracy," he said, claiming expertise in pesticide testing.

Similarly, asserting at another press meet that Pepsi is a safe soft drink and the aggregating residue levels in each input in its beverages have consistently been within the most stringent 0.5 ppb limit of total pesticides residue (EU water norms), Chairman Pepsico. Rajeev Bakshi said, "We are open to stricter regulations in the interest of consumer safety.......... we are pronounced guilty for no fault of ours through a process without a valid testing protocol."

Refuting that they were delaying development of finished product standards for consumers' safety, he said that his company was all for it and would work closely with the Government and any other agency, including the CSE, for the purpose, provided it is preceded by stricter science-based, accurate, validated and agreed upon method in the form of a protocol to verify compliance in finished products.

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