The Hindu : JPC on soft drinks to visit Plachimada in December

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 22, 2003

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National

JPC on soft drinks to visit Plachimada in December

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI OCT. 21. The Joint Parliamentary Committee looking into the issue of standards for soft drinks and other beverages will visit Plachimada in Kerala's Palakkad district for an on-the-spot study following allegations that the waste sludge supplied by the Coca-Cola bottling plant there to farmers as fertilizer had a high concentration of the toxic cadmium metal.

The JPC chairman and Nationalist Congress Party leader, Sharad Pawar, said here today that the farmers and the general public were continuing their agitation for the closure of the plant despite a clean chit given by the Kerala Pollution Control Board.

The JPC will visit the village in December. It will be tied up with a trip to the Mysore-based Central Food and Technological Research Institute which had conducted tests on soft drink samples for pesticide residues to corroborate the report of the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment.

Mr. Pawar indicated that the panel was also likely to look into the controversy over the presence of worms in some samples of Cadbury's chocolates and complaints that some soft drinks manufacturers were airing advertisements that belittled the potential health hazards of pesticide residues in soft drinks. "Food safety is one of the items in the agenda before the JPC. Chocolates can be considered as a food item."

Meanwhile, presenting their views before the JPC, the representatives of the CII, FICCI and ASSOCHAM today submitted that the Union Health Ministry's proposal to introduce standards for soft drinks and other beverages on the lines of the European Union norms would harm not only the industry but also the interests of the consumers as the products would become costlier. The country should instead evolve a standard of its own on a scientific basis, they said.

Stating that the E.U. standards were set to look after the interests of the farmers and industry there, they said the norms introduced in India should take into consideration aspects such as the consumption patterns of the people and the type of agricultural practices adopted in the country. Codex Alimentarius, an independent international organisation promoted by the World Health Organisation and the Food and Agriculture Organisation, prescribed such an approach considering that conditions varied from country to country and no single norm could be set for all countries. India must follow the Codex guidelines, they said.

Mr. Pawar said the next round of hearings would be held on October 29 and 30 and that it would be attended by representatives of the Union Environment Ministry, the Central Pollution Control Board, the Indian Council of Medical Research and the Association of Bottled Water Manufacturers.

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