New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre to finalise Prevention of Food Adulteration Rules after considering objections, so that the manufacture of soft drinks could be regulated for contents.

A Bench consisting of Justices Ashok Bhan and Dalveer Bhandari gave this direction after Additional Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran appearing for the Centre said the National Level Expert Committee would submit its report in January next and the rules would be finalised thereafter.

The Bench was hearing a petition filed by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation alleging that soft drinks contained highly toxic, acidic and addictive ingredients dangerous for human consumption but the Centre was not taking steps to enforce the law.

Mr. Parasaran said the committee was asked to consider the question of the contents and their harmful effects.

Appearing for cola companies, senior counsel K.K. Venugopal and Mukul Rohatgi said the amended Prevention of Food Adulteration Act would take care of the petitioner's concerns.

Lack of effective laws

The petitioner said effective laws and well-defined regulations were lacking to regulate the permissible ingredients and also their quantity. This was an open invitation to the soft drinks industry to add harmful ingredients to make its products more attractive.

The Centre said giving the level of contaminants on the label was not the international practice, nor had it been prescribed by Codex.

The issue of contamination was being viewed seriously and the Government was committed to protecting the health of consumers. It would take all effective and necessary steps to fulfil its obligations.

The Centre said the rules provided for adequate safeguards to check and regulate the manufacture and sale of food articles including soft drinks to ensure that a food product, not conducive to the public health, was not made available to the people.

The bench posted the case for further hearing in February.

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