Full and final: Norms for finished products by '07

NEW DELHI: Cola companies must be ready by next year for a composite standard for the maximum permissible pesticide level in their finished products, besides the norms for the sugar that goes into soft drinks.

The health ministry will notify the protocols to test samples from the market, soon after the NK Ganguly panel gives its report by April next year. The ministry does not agree with Pepsi’s demand that the calibration of the equipment and the testing protocols should be validated internationally by peer review.

The company says that this would eliminate the high degree of variation in the results of tests done at two different labs. “Whenever we bring standards, we also notify sophisticated testing methodology under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act.

This would be followed in the present case too. This national methodology would be fair and would ensure a level playing field. Even the European Union adopts new standards and testing procedure, without waiting to refer the Codex standards,” said a source.

The government believes that norms for the finished product will be easier and much more effective to ensure safety rather than testing the ingredients at the bottling plant. The panel would collect 600 samples from across the country for testing before deciding the permissible limits.

The panel decided to test sugar samples for setting the permissible levels as the exercise of gathering information on the pesticides used by farmers is taking time. The agriculture ministry allows farmers to use close to 15 pesticides. The panel can go into all issues pertaining to pesticides.