Diet Coke may be launched soon

NEW DELHI, JULY 7: Coke may finally be readying itself for an all-India launch of its Diet Coke following a wide-ranging stay granted to ...

NEW DELHI, JULY 7: Coke may finally be readying itself for an all-India launch of its Diet Coke following a wide-ranging stay granted to it by the Delhi High Court yesterday. With this, Coke will now be ready to launch a counter-offensive against Pepsi which was first off the block, launching its Diet Pepsi in June itself. Since Coke officials had till recently been saying that they would not launch Diet Coke till there was any legal confusion over whether a diet drink could be produced in India, the fact that Coke has gone to court means the company is close to launching its drink soon.

The court has ordered that till it grants a ruling in the case — the ministry of health has been asked to respond by July 29 — no action should be taken against Britco Foods in connection with the manufacture or sale of Diet Coke. Britco Foods is a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Coco Cola Company and manufactures concentrates for its beverages and also packages Coke in cans and PET bottles.

The confusion over thematter stems from an interpretation made by the Ministry of Health on June 3. Earlier, on May 27, the ministry had come out with a notification allowing beverage manufacturers to use a blend of artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and acesulfame-K — this was crucial as it is only through this that manufacturers can produce a beverage with a calorific value of one or even less than that. Following this, Pepsi launched its Diet drink, advertising that it had a calorific value of one. A few days later, however, the same ministry issued a press note saying that all diet drinks must have a minimum of 5 per cent sucrose. With this sugar content, however, no drink can have a calorific value of one, and cannot qualify as a diet product! A sucrose content of 5 per cent, for example, automatically ensures that a 330ml can will have 80 calories in it — a regular Coke or Pepsi can has around 200 calories.

When the ministry came out with this press note, Pepsi went to court and cited a Supreme Court ruling ofJustice Bhagwati in another soft drinks manufacturing case. Pepsi argued that the ministry’s stipulation of a 5 per cent sucrose level under the Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) laws applies only to sweetened carbonated water’.