Coca Cola questions CSE

NDTV :: Coca Cola questions CSE: "Coca Cola has questioned the credibility of the testing carried out by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), which claimed that soft drink products in India contained high levels of pesticides.

"The CSE is not an accredited laboratory," Coca-Cola India Vice President (Technical) Asim Parekh told reporters. He said no "fixed standards" had been set up for such kind of tests so far.

Last week, the CSE claimed that tests conducted on more than 50 samples of soft drinks sold by Coca-Cola India and PepsiCo India contained high levels of pesticide residues. However, Parekh said that his company would welcome and support any move to set up standards.

"We just want that there must be a scientific basis behind the standard....We are willing to work with the government," he said. "It is an issue that concerns science and we should let the scientific community decide about the methodology for conducting tests," Parekh said.

However, he remained evasive when asked to react on the ban imposed on Coke and Pepsi by the Kerala government saying that we would not like to react on media reports."