Following the allegations of high pesticide content in 11 products of soft drink giants Coca Cola and PepsiCo by NGO Centre for Science and Environment, governments of various states including Rajasthan, Punjab, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh have issued advisories against aerated drinks, while Kerala went a step further and banned manufacture and sale of products by these two companies in the state.
Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on August 2 unveiled findings of a new study that claimed pesticide residue in products of the two cola giants were much above the permissible level.
CSE, after testing 57 samples of 11 soft drink brands of Coca Cola and PepsiCo collected from 25 manufacturing units across 12 states, claimed that all the bottles examined had a 'cocktail of 3-5 different pesticides' which was 24 times above the standards finalised by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).