Joint Press Statement
Issued by
Consumer Coordination Council (CCC), the national coalition of 55 leading consumer groups in the country; CONCERT, Chennai; and Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi

Consumer and environmental groups welcome the new draft standards for soft drinks. Say the standards, the first of their kind in the world, are a giant leap forward for the food safety movement in India, as they will pave the way for food safety reform. "The government needs to be praised for its swift action and endorsement of the public health agenda," say these leading groups, who came together to issue a joint press statement.

New Delhi, July 21, 2004: The government has moved a step ahead in implementing the recommendations of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on pesticide residues in soft drinks, by issuing draft standards for carbonated beverages. When finalised, the draft standards, issued by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), will be the first in the world on pesticide residues in soft drinks. The standards will go a long way in protecting public health as it will provide the roadmap for reform in making other food commodities safer, say leading consumer and environmental groups who came together to issue a joint press statement simultaneously from Delhi and Chennai.

The BIS, under the Union Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Consumer Affairs, began revising its standards for carbonated beverages after the release of CSE’s report on pesticide residues in soft drinks. Its committee on carbonated beverages, with representatives from the soft drink industry and industry associations, consumer and environmental groups and leading agricultural scientists, nutritionists and toxicologists has worked for the past nine months to formulate the standards.

The fact that the industrialised world had not set standards for pesticide residues in the final soft drink became a key roadblock in the process. This issue was also considered by the JPC; it was argued that such standards do not exist anywhere in the world and so are unnecessary for India as well. But the JPC concluded that "the reason other countries have not fixed such limits should not dissuade our lawmakers in attempting to do so, particularly when a vulnerable section of our population, who are young and constitute a vast national asset, are consuming soft drinks".

It was understood that the industrialised world has not set standards for pesticide residues in its finished products, like soft drinks, because it has by and large cleaned up its agricultural produce and drinking water of contaminants. However, as large parts of the developing world faced the growing problem of pesticide contamination in food and water, it becomes imperative to finalise standards for processed food products. "These draft standards are the first in the world to set limits on pesticide residues in soft drinks and will hopefully become a model for other countries to emulate," says Sunita Narain, director, CSE. In the draft standards, the limits for pesticide residues in soft drinks are similar to standards for bottled water, which are widely seen to be protective of consumer health.

These standards are also the first in the country to regulate the pH of the drinks as well as to follow the global best practice in the use of caffeine in soft drinks, which are consumed by young children. The use of caffeine in soft drinks is widely considered to be addictive and the JPC had strongly recommended that caffeine should be stringently regulated according to the global best practice in the country.

In the draft standards, the quantum of caffeine permitted in soft drinks has been reduced to 145 mg/litre from the current 200 ppm. "Globally, there is rising concern regarding the use of high amounts of caffeine in soft drinks, which is consumed by a vulnerable section of the society; therefore, it was important for us to set the global best standard for caffeine," says R Desikan, head of CONCERT, a leading consumer group.

The draft standard also recommends that if the amount of caffeine exceeds this limit, there will be strong advisory labelling required on the product, which will say that the "beverage is not recommended for children and pregnant or lactating women".

The draft standard formulated by BIS differs from the proposed revision of standards issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in August 2003, as this is restricted to carbonated beverages and does not include fruit juices. The reason is that fruit juice, being nutritive in nature, has to have different standards for pesticides and other contaminants compared with non-nutritive and non-essential products like soft drinks. Therefore, the BIS committee has chosen to limit this draft standard to like products – non-alcoholic carbonated beverages that use less than 10 per cent fruit pulp. However, these standards, when finalised, will certainly provide the key for further reforms in general food standard-setting in the country, contends Bejon Mishra, head of CCC.

Meanwhile, these draft standards are open for public comment till August 31, 2004, after which they will be finalised. Consumer and environmental groups urge the government to bring soft drinks under mandatory certification, so that the quality of the product is ensured and the standards are enforced.

The report of the JPC had set out a firm and progressive reform agenda for public health and food safety. It had also indicted two of the world’s largest corporations for the way they operate in India. Now these standards are set to become an important precedent to hold corporations accountable, point out the delighted consumer and environmental groups.