Colas not to can investments

The two global soft drink giants, Pepsi and Coca Cola, today said their long-term investments plans in India remained unaffected by the pesticide controversy, even as Pepsi appeared ready to challenge in the high court the ban imposed by the Kerala government on the sale of its products.

Coca Cola was also given a clean chit by representatives of Central Science Laboratories, an independent body of the United Kingdom government.

The reaffirmation of faith in India by the two US-based companies came just a day after the US government warned that foreign investment flows into India could be affected by the controversy.

"Pepsico's long-term investments in India are not affected," the company's head of India operations, Rajiv Bakshi, told journalists in New Delhi.

Separately, Coca Cola India said it had invested more than $1 billion in India in the last 13 years, and would remain committed to the country.

It is believed that Pepsi has prepared a petition to be filed soon in the Kerala High Court against the ban in the state on the production, distribution, and sale of its products.

Bakshi, however, said he was yet to see the notice effecting the ban. "If there is a threat to our investment, we will fight for our rights. If necessary, we will explore the legal option," he said.

Both Pepsi and Coca Cola dismissed allegations levelled by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a non-government organisation, that the products of the two companies carried a very high amount of pesticide residue, and were not safe for consumption.

Bakshi said the company was ready to accept any scientific standards for finished products, provided there was a standardised testing method.

Emphasising that Pepsi's products conformed to the highest safety standards, he added: "Set a standard. I'm not bothered. Till you develop a validated international standard, check my water, sugar, etc, and if I'm below 0.5 parts per billion (the European Union standard for packaged water), declare me as safe. Don't let me off the book even today."

Crying foul over being held guilty by the political establishment "without getting a chance" to present its case, Bakshi said, "We are clean... (and) being unfairly targeted." He, however, said there was no plan as of now to sue CSE for damages.

Coca Cola protested its innocence by organising a press conference of the representatives of Central Science Laboratories (CSL). The company had last week sent samples of its soft drinks from India to CSL for tests.

"We detected no residues of the four pesticides allegedly found in the products by CSE," said John Gilbert, science director (food), CSL.

He added that unlike CSE, CSL had conducted its study in accordance with the European Quality Control guidelines, which had been in place since the mid-1990s.

Stewart Reynolds, head of the analytical services unit of CSL, slammed the CSE report for its "many unusual pesticide findings." He highlighted this with the example of CSE detecting heptachlor in cola samples.

"Heptachlor has been banned for many years now, and for it to be detected, it would have had to be used only recently. At CSL, we would have first reconfirmed our finding, and then sent it to another laboratory for verification," he said.

Reynolds and Gilbert criticised CSE for not retaining Coke's extracts, and sharing them with other scientists. They said CSE "releasing its reports so quickly is not a customary route."