Toxicola debate: US Embassy cold to Pepsi & Coke

The ads have only ended up muddying the water. Both companies listed test results as per websites—the addresses were displayed in the ads—asking people to visit these sites and decide for themselves.

Coke had two sites and both linked to five reports from TNO Nutrition and Food Research Lab, Netherlands. The reports are interestingly not of its soft drink but of Kinley, its bottled water.

Moreover, these are tests done in March just after CSE had come out with a report on pesticide on bottled water.

‘‘The water used in the beverages is completely safe,’’ says the ad on the basis of the reports.

However, CSE does not buy this argument — ‘‘We would like to remind Coke that it is releasing its data because we forced them to and because of the government issuing the new notification,’’ it said in a statement.

The Coca-Cola spokesperson clarified that the main concern is water and Kinley results show that water being used is safe. ‘‘We have common plants for both Coca-Cola and Kinley. If Kinley is safe, then the Coca-Cola is safe too’’ said a Coca-Cola spokesperson.

Pepsi’s results are only for their water — both for their raw water and for their treated water.

‘‘There are two test results for Pepsi from Bazpur and Kosi and these are plants close to Delhi,’’ said Annie Cyriac, Pepsi spokesperson.

In samples collected from Pepsi’s Lawrence Road and Noida plants in Delhi, Chlorpyrifos results show that the while the groundwater (source water) had zero pesticide, the treated water had 0.022 microgrammes.

‘‘The reason why we put out this result was because we want to show the sensitivity of the results — it is 2 parts per billion and will show up in some of the tests. It is still within the EU standards,’’ said Cyriac.

Both companies have been talking of the ‘‘sensitivity’’ of the tests and arguing that CSE laboratories are not in a position to handle the tests.

Pepisco also admits that they have sent their samples to the Vimta laboratories in Hyderabad only twice before. Incidentally, in the press conference just after the report was released, they had claimed that they were doing these tests ‘‘before, after and during’’ manufacturing.

‘‘The law requires us to do it only once in two years. We are doing it once in six months on our own,’’ said Cyriac.

Meanwhile, CSE is dismissing these claims saying their data was for a finished product, not just for treated water.

‘‘The data is just not comparable and if the companies had been doing routine tests, then where are those reports?’’ said Sunita Narain, director CSE.