Why Health’s new cola water standards are healthy, not wholesome

In line with the recommendations of the Joint Parliamentary Committee which looked into the issue of pesticide levels in soft drinks, BIS draft norms too insist on EU standards for the entire finished product — water, sugar, preservatives, additives — and not just the quality of water that goes into manufacturing.

This is where the difference lies. The move by the Ministry of Health means that companies do not have to do much except ensure that packaged water is used for the manufacture of soft drinks. But if the BIS norms become a rule, all ingredients and, finally, the finished product will be under the scanner.

BIS draft norms also have a mandatory labelling requirement for caffeine and Ph levels. In short, the bottle can be taken, tested in a laboratory and, if any trace of pesticide is found above EU levels for water, the company can be hauled up.

Sunita Narain, Director of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) which first raised the pesticide presence issue, said: ‘‘The Ministry of Health notification is good to begin with. But it’s a half-way measure. How and what will anybody measure to see if the companies are complying?’’ The companies, on their part, have been maintaining from the very beginning that nowhere in the world are there standards for a finished product.

Rajiv Bakshi, chairman of PepsiCo India, said: ‘‘We welcome the Ministry of Health notification. It’s scientific and technologically sound and we shall abide by it.’’

In the absence of any set of standards, no food inspector had the right to check their bottles for pesticide residue.

If the BIS draft gets converted into rules, it would be mandatory for the companies to come under the ISI mark. In other words, inspectors will be empowered to test the finished soft drink product.

‘‘We are not party to the BIS draft. We will send our appropriate comments to them,’’ said Bakshi.

Is it so difficult for the companies to comply with the finished products norm? ‘‘It is difficult to comply 100 per cent all the time. Some of the ingredients like sugar are agricultural and it will be impossible to test each time for zero pesticide,’’ said Bakshi.

But the CSE plans to up the ante and ensure that BIS norms, rather than ‘‘half-way’’ measures, are enforced by the Government.