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20 Aug 06

India Widens Ban on Coke and Pepsi - New York Times

www.nytimes.com/...07cnd-soda.html - Preview

business cola india industry multinationals

“This study is not targeted at the soft drinks company. We want the government to act on its commitment to regulate the soft drinks industry,”
they do have to check the quality of the water going into the drink to ensure that trace elements of agricultural chemicals have been removed.
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- Indian farmers have used pesticides intensively for decades and there are detectable quantities of such chemicals in the ground water, which enter many food products on sale.
- How the pesticides enter the drinks remains unclear.
- “This is clearly unacceptable as we know that pesticides are tiny toxins and impact our bodies over time,” Sunita Narain, the group’s director, said.
- The watchdog group’s report, published last week, followed an earlier study on pesticide levels in soft drinks, and concluded that those levels remained unacceptably high
- “compared with the permitted levels in tea and other food products, pesticide levels in soft drinks are negligible.”
- The company acknowledged pesticides were present in the ground water in India
- “Pepsi is one of the safest beverages you can drink today.”
- after tests on 11 products made by the two companies showed high pesticide levels,
- unacceptably high levels of pesticides in the drinks.
- Despite the huge popularity of the colas, the two companies are often held up as symbols of Western cultural imperialism.

14 Aug 06

India: Pesticide Claims Shake Up Coke and Pepsi

www.businessweek.com/...gb20060810_826414.htm - Preview

awareness business health india industry issues multinationals public soft-drink

the contrasting approach that Cadbury India took three years ago when live worms started showing up in the company's chocolate products in Mumbai.
"substantive response" on precisely what levels of pesticides are in their drinks, why that isn't a health threat, and exactly what both companies do to keep it that way.
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- Given the big corporate names involved, the scrutiny has been extremely intense in India
- PepsiCo noted in its printed ads that pesticide levels in Indian teas and milk are far higher. (Some levels of pesticides are common in many foods given the heavy reliance on chemicals in raising crops in India and other countries.
- Coca-Cola has posted background information on its testing and quality procedures
- It has even offered to take Indian customers on guided tours of its processing plants as a goodwill measure.
- The results of the study, which sampled 57 finished drink products at 25 different Indian Coca-Cola and PepsiCo plants,
- allegations made by the New Delhi Center for Science and Environment (CSE) that pesticide residues found in Coca-Cola and PepsiCo brands were 24 times higher than new safety standards on soft drinks that have been developed by the Bureau of Indian Standards.
- a public-relations calamity of the first order. True, this is a $2 billion market that both Coca-Cola and PepsiCo dominate with a combined share of roughly 80%-plus.
- the Indian Supreme Court has jumped into the fray by ordering Coca-Cola to divulge its century-plus secret formula
- Coke and Pepsi bottle-smashing press events
- Earlier in August, several other regions such as the Western coastal state of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh in central India erected partial bans on the sale of Coke and Pepsi at schools and government offices.
- On Aug. 9, the dispute escalated when India's southwestern state of Kerala, home to about 30 million people, banned the Indian subsidiaries of both companies from making or selling their beverages.
- a feisty New Delhi-based environmental group, left-leaning politicians in Southern India, and nonstop press coverage
- global soft-drink heavies Coca-Cola (KO) and PepsiCo (PEP) are actually on the same side.