The Hindu Business Line : No consensus at BIS panel meet on pesticide residue in soft drinks

THE BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) committee meeting on setting standards for pesticide residues in soft drinks has failed to achieve consensus, with industry groups and NGOs engaged in an inconclusive debate at the panel's 11th meeting held here on Friday.

Ms Sunita Narain, Director of the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), said the soft drink companies were against setting the standards.

Addressing reporters on the sidelines of the conference held at the National Institution of Nutrition (NIN), attended by 43 members, she said the CSE had proposed that there should be an interim pesticides residue standards.

"They (the soft drink companies) argue that there is no such standards any where in the world. But we told the committee that we could have standards because we found residues here," she said.

She alleged that the companies did not want to be regulated by the Government. "They are out of regulation," she said.

She said there could be another meeting of the Drinks and Carbonated Beverages Sectional Committee of the BIS as the Hyderabad meeting failed to arrive at a conclusion. The committee was also supposed to set standards for pH and caffeine in soft drinks.

The BIS panel finalised draft standards in 2004 and sought public comments. Majority of public comments supported the BIS view. The soft drink companies and some industry associations opposed it.

Though consensus seemed to have arrived with regard to standards in caffeine and pH, consensus on pesticide residues remained a contentious issue.

"If there is no consensus, the Chair and members of the panel have the discretion to take a final decision," Ms Sunita said.

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