Maharashtra FDA to test colas

Close on the heels of a complete ban of Pepsi and Coca Cola in Kerala and Karnataka, a similar move is expected in Maharashtra despite the health ministry's clean chit to the multinational soft drink brands.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Maharashtra State, has initiated an independent testing of the soft drinks sold in the state to detect the reported contamination and pesticide content in the drinks produced by Coca Cola and PepsiCo.

The state food and drug agency has collected samples from 52 brands produced by these companies from their 10 bottling plants in Maharashtra and has sent them to the official testing laboratory in Pune.

Amitab Chandra, FDA commissioner, said the results will be available in a couple of days. There will be immediate action by the regulator against the sales of these products in the state if they are found below the expected quality standards in the tests. he added.

"The move follows an urgent health alert by the state government following the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) test reports and the contradicting statements by various agencies on the facts," the Commissioner said.

The FDA commissioner said they will evaluate the contamination level in the water used in these drinks by comparing it with the available quality standards and will go ahead with the action based on the reports. Last week, the FDA had done a surprise checks in the drinks majors' manufacturing locations in the wake of demands for banning colas.

"In this context, instead of depending on the CSE report, we have collected 52 samples of colas from 10 plants, five each of Coke and Pepsi for tests on pesticide content and sent to our official lab for a holistic scrutiny," Amitabh Chandra said.

Earlier this week, the health ministry had stated that the CSE report had failed to prove its claims.

The CSE rejected the Centre's statement and accused the health minister of pandering to big multinationals at the expense public health.

The CSE said in its report, published nearly three weeks ago, that it had found traces of pesticides far above permissible levels in the products of the two global giants.

The report by the New Delhi-based group had also triggered a ban on the sale of beverages made by the two firms in several states at or near state-run schools, colleges and hospitals. Kerala declared a total ban on the drinks.