Should European Union standards of purity be applied to just carbonated drinks (read colas) or all beverages, including fruit juices? Don’t ask the Government, it can’t make up its mind.For cola companies, a suitable answer is all beverages since that effectively lets them off the hook arguing that nowhere in the world are EU-type strict standards applied to finished products like juices and anyways, juices depend on fruits and pulp over which they don’t have control.As per EU standards, only .0001 mg per litre of a single pesticide residue is allowed for packaged drinking water and a total of .0005 mg per litre for multiple residues.When in August, the Centre for Science and Environment study showed colas to have pesticide residue 11-30 times EU standards, the Government issued a notification that EU standards should be enforced for all beverages, including colas, juices, tea and coffee.And then in December, the Government changed its stand making it more difficult for cola companies to wriggle out.The Ministry of Health, in a letter to the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), said colas have a ‘‘different composition’’ with ‘‘91% water’’ so just enforce EU standards (packaged water) standards for them. Juices could get pesticide residues from additives too.In other words, cola companies had to stop arguing about the impractical nature of the notification and get down to implementing EU standards for colas. Today, the Government says forget that note and cites an embarrassing reason: that note was written by a junior officer!The Ministry told the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) headed by Sharad Pawar looking into the issue that ‘‘this (the last letter) communication is withdrawn.(it) had not been approved at appropriate level in the Ministry’’When contacted by The Sunday Express, Secretary, Ministry of Health, said: ‘‘The letter written by the junior officer had not been verified by any senior person. The officer had just joined the department. He has been asked to provide an explanation.’’The official who had written the letter is of the rank of Additional Director General, Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. This declaration was made at a packed gathering of Bureau of Indian Standards, Ministry of Health and Cola companies at a JPC hearing today.Now it just means that the the government goes back to its earlier stand: Enforce EU norms for all beverages.The cola companies can, therefore, relax again and take comfort in their earlier argument: Can never be enforced in juices and hence please take it back.
