Pesticides in Soft Drink Products of PepsiCo - Assignment Example

Pepsi Pepsi was started as a drink in the 1890’s is now one of the world’s largest cola drink maker along with Coca Cola. The cola wars are attributed to these two organizations and between them share the cola market in the world. Issues 1. PepsiCo pays for experiments involving rats and mice This issue is related to the fact PepsiCo has been funding research projects involving animal testing. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has alleged that Gatorade Sports Science Institute which belongs to PepsiCo organization provided funding to a research project which involved animal testing. The point in this allegation has been that a respiratory virus was injected into mice and these were then made to run on a treadmill for 3 days. PETA also added that further projects were funded where mice were again the target of the experiments. In these experiments mice were implanted with testosterone pellets and human prostrate tumours to find out the long term and short term effects on the mice (Reuters, 2007). 2. PepsiCo – Pesticides in soft drinks This issue is centred on the fact that the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), an India based NGO, found that its laboratory reports to check the harmful pesticide levels in cold drinks gave ample evidence that PepsiCo had different standards for developed and emerging nations and that the developing nations were the focal point of this discrimination. CSE found high levels of pesticide and insecticide contamination in the Indian samples and on the other hand the samples brought from abroad had much lower residue levels (CSE, 2003?b). 3. PepsiCo – Pepsi Plant in Kerala (India) extracting excess water This issue gained momentum and came to the forefront after a statement released by the ruling LDF government in Kerala (India) which alleged Pepsi India. The allegation was that the Pepsi plant in Palakkad district has been using ground water in excess to what has been stipulated to be used and also discharging solid wastes with pollutants and effluents. The statement has been made on the fact that the water level in the area in March-April was below the seasonal average of past years (DNA, 2010). Critical Report on Pesticides in Soft Drink Products of PepsiCo Initial findings by CSE The issue was first discovered and reported by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in August 2003 and is based on the report “Analysis of Pesticide Residues in Soft Drinks”. The bone of contention is that Pepsi products in the USA have no residual pesticides while the same in India have amounts that are much higher (36 times) than the EEC norms. This evidence kicked up a storm and pointed fingers at the dual nature of organizations like PepsiCo while manufacturing products for the developing and developed markets. The pesticide residuals discovered like Lindane are potent carcinogens and also affect the reproductive systems of living beings (Mathur, et al., 2003). Figure 1 : Pesticide Residuals for Cola products Writ Petition by PepsiCo and Counter affidavit by CSE PepsiCo vehemently denied this fact and also challenged CSE in court. It filed a writ petition on August 8, 2003, days after CSE had released its report revealing high and unacceptable levels of pesticide residue in PepsiCo’s soft drinks range. PepsiCo questioned the right of CSE to conduct the study and had called its report dubious and irresponsible (CSE, 2003a). The government in response to the writ petition had called the writ “highly frivolous, vexatious, vague and baseless, merely done to attract media attention” (CSE, 2003a). When CSE had raised a counter affidavit in response to the writ petition, PepsiCo silently withdrew the writ petition since it did not have any conclusive answers to the counter affidavit. All this evidence points to the fact that PepsiCo certainly did know certain facts about its products and also do a certain extent did agree to the report made by CSE. Government labs find pesticide residual - Central Food Laboratory (CFL) After CSE found out that the cola major has pesticide residual in its products the government of India asked for a report by the government agency CFL based out of Kolkata. This agency had also taken samples from the same bottling plants that were earlier used by CSE. CFL results also corroborated the facts that the products indeed have pesticide levels much higher than the EU norms. Though the report did mention about high levels of pesticide residuals the levels were not as high as those mentioned by CSE. The anomaly in the numbers provided by these two organisations is due to the dependency factor of the season. CSE had conducted the study in the months of March-April when the ground level water is at its lowest in the year. The CFL report is based on samples that been taken in the months of August when due to rains the groundwater levels were replenished thus diluting the pesticide concentration levels (Rediff, 2003). Introduction of BIS standards for soft drinks and further report on residual pesticide content Further to the initial study done by CSE the Indian Parliament had ordered for a Joint Action Committee to check the veracity of the report as well to set safety standards for soft drinks. In October 2005, the committee finalized the standards for residual pesticide content which was set to a limit of 0.1 ppb for individual pesticide concentration level and 0.5 ppb for total pesticide concentration level in the soft drinks. In December 2005 another study was conducted to find out the residual pesticide content in soft drinks and again it was found that the total pesticide residues in the 57 soft drink samples manufactured in India was 11.85 ppb, which was found to be 24 times higher than the BIS limit for total pesticide concentration in soft drinks (0.5 ppb) (Sapna, et al., 2006). Figure 2 : Residual Pesticide content for 2-August 2006 report This evidence points to the fact that inspite of a 3 year time period provided to the cola majors and also the introduction of the BIS standards did not help much in the reduction of the residual pesticide content in soft drinks. PepsiCo agrees to pesticide norms Pepsi has finally acknowledged and accepted the findings and announced that it is willing to accept standards for pesticide residue in cola. This is the first time that it has happened on a global level. The present accepted norm is that there are standards only for inputs ingredients for the cola but not for the final product (EconomicTimes, 2006). Pepsi India, said in a statement, “We are open to stricter regulations in the interest of consumer safety, even while maintaining its products are safe and comply with Indian and international standards.” (EconomicTimes, 2006) Pepsi also maintained that it will work with CSE in tandem to establish stricter science based standards on finished products. Pepsi was ready to work with CSE but had a condition stating that it will participate in such a method only if there is an accurate, repeatable, validated and agreed upon detection method to verify compliance (EconomicTimes, 2006). Conclusion This statement from PepsiCo points to certain admissions albeit indirectly that the residual pesticide limits were not within limits and the report by CSE had right data which was provided to the public at large. It is also heartening to notice that such a large organization is whole heartedly moving towards establishing new standards and also to work in tandem with NGOs in the greater interest of the society and citizens. Bibliography 1. CSE, 2003a. PepsiCo backs out in court. [online] Available at: [Accessed 12 August 2010]. 2. CSE, 2003?b. Pesticides in soft drinks. [online] Available at: [Accessed 12 August 2010]. 3. DNA, 2010. Pepsi plant in Kerala extracting excess water: Minister. [online] Available at: [Accessed 11 August 2010]. 4. Dr.Sapna, J. et al., 2006. CSE Report: Analysis of pesticide residues in soft drinks, August 2006. [online] Available at: [Accessed 11 August 2010]. 5. EconomicTimes, 2006. Pepsi agrees to pesticide norms. [online] Available at: [Accessed 12 August 2010]. 6. Prof. (Dr.) Mathur, H.B. et al., 2003. Analysis of Pesticide Residues in Soft Drinks. [online] Available at: [Accessed 11 August 2010]. 7. Rediff, 2003. Govt lab too finds pesticide in cola samples. [online] Available at: [Accessed 11 August 2010]. 8. Reuters, 2007. PepsiCo stops funding animal testing. [online] Available at: [Accessed 12 August 2010]. Read More