Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Saturday, Aug 19, 2006
Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Saturday, Aug 19, 2006 |
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Marketing
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Standards & Benchmarks Standardised protocol for testing needed: PepsiCo India chief Our Bureau
MR RAJEEV BAKSHI
Chennai , Aug. 18 Pepsi is not averse to stringent quality standards but only wants a standardised protocol for testing, according to Mr Rajeev Bakshi, Chairman, PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt Ltd. Pepsi's soft drinks are safe, scientific studies show they are pesticide-free and they out-do quality standards set by any government in the world, he said. Addressing a press conference to allay fears of pesticide presence in soft drinks, following a study by an NGO, Mr Bakshi said that a number of studies have produced discordant results. That was because no country has a standard protocol for testing finished food products. Pepsi was pushing for a standardised protocol and the agencies under the Health Ministry were working on a procedure. This could take up to one year to be put in place.
Pesticide-free
In the interim, Mr Bakshi said that it has tested all the ingredients that go into its soft drinks — water constitutes 90 per cent, sugar 9 per cent and flavour 1 per cent. These individually have been scientifically tested and proved to be pesticide-free, in scientific terms less than one part per billion (that makes it less than 0.000001 ml in a one-litre bottle) or as he put it, in relative terms that is like measuring one second in a 320-year period. If the ingredients are pesticide-free then it follows that the final product is also pesticide-free. It is because that such small quantity of measurement is involved that Pepsi is insisting on standardised procedures, otherwise any company would be open to sniping by any agency. Even in Pepsi's case studies by various reputed labs have thrown up widely varying results, he said.
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