We are being unfairly targeted: Pepsi

New Delhi: Soft drinks giant PepsiCo India chief Rajiv Bakshi on Sunday said the company was being "unfairly targeted" in the pesticides-in-cola controversy and asserted that its products were safe.

"We are clean... (and) being unfairly targeted," Bakshi said. The statement came days after many state Governments issued advisories against soft drinks while the Kerala Government banned their production and sale.

He said the company should have been given an opportunity to present its case before such actions.

"Political establishments should not act without a fair hearing from our side. You cannot take action on the basis of an NGO," he said.

CSE had on August 2 unveiled findings of a new study that claimed high pesticide residue in products of the cola giants Pepsi and Coca Cola, triggering action by states like Rajasthan, Punjab, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh and prompting the Kerala government to ban the sale and production of soft drinks.

PepsiCo plans to move the Kerala High Court against the LDF government's decision to ban manufacture and sale of its products in the state.

Strongly objecting to claims of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) that soft drinks in India contained high levels of pesticides, Bakshi said his company was "willing to accept any standard that is science-based, on finished products, provided it is a validated test method."

CSE tested 57 samples of 11 softdrink brands of Coca Cola and PepsiCo collected from 25 manufacturing units across 12 states and 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).

While maintaining that its products comply with Indian and international regulations, PepsiCo has said it was open to work with CSE.

"We are open to working with CSE and any other interested party to establish stricter science-based standards on finished products. We would welcome the opportunity to meet with CSE and any other interested party to discuss details of our methods and to gain a clearer understanding of theirs, to decide on a clear way forward in the interest of developing finished product standards for consumer safety," the company said.

However, CSE head Sunita Narain has rejected the offer saying standards have been finalised and need to be implemented by the Government.

She accused the cola companies of pressurising the Government against implementation of the standards.

Cola sales in the country are estimated to have fallen by about 15 per cent following the break-out of the controversy.

The latest allegations against the soft drink companies follow similar charges leveled against them in 2003.