NEW DELHI - An Indian court ordered the federal government yesterday to test soft drink samples of PepsiCo Inc and submit the results in three weeks following a report by an environment group that said the drinks contained pesticides.
The Delhi High Court asked the government to prescribe new standards on pesticide limits in soft drinks because the current regulations did not cover such contamination. The court order came in response to a petition by PepsiCo, which asked the court to direct the government not to rely on the report by a voluntary group and conduct its own tests.
The New Delhi-based Center for Science and Environment (CSE), in a report published last week, said its tests on beverages manufactured in India by PepsiCo and Coca-Cola Co found they contained four pesticides while beverages made in the United States by the same firms did not.
The cola giants, who battle each other for India's $1.5 billion carbonated beverages market, have strongly rejected the CSE's findings that the drinks sold in India did not meet international standards.
The CSE, a high-profile environmental group, said the soft drinks in India had high pesticide content because the soft drink and bottled water industry used an enormous amount of ground water as basic raw material.:
