New York: As the controversy surrounding the presence of pesticides in soft drinks continue to haunt the business of the US-based companies, the United States has warned that the move to ban these products could affect India's hopes of attracting American investment.
Frank Lavin, Under Secretary for International Trade, has described the row as a "setback for the Indian economy", a BBC report said.
Though five state governments in the country have banned the sale of the drinks manufactured by Coca Cola and PepsiCo at or near schools, colleges and hospitals after Centre for Science Environment (CSE) said it had found pesticide residues in 57 samples of the two firms' products, the Central Government is yet to take a stand on the issue.
The CSE in a report had stated that the presence of pesticides continues to exist in colas much beyond the permissible limit and that samples from Kolkata exhibited a much higher percentage of pesticides presence compared to the national average.
The companies refuted the allegations saying that Cola-Cola soft drinks manufactured in India, met European Union purity standards for pesticides in bottled water.
A similar study by the CSE in 2003 had briefly dented sales of the two companies' drinks when it reported levels of pesticide in excess of international standards, highlighting weak food safety laws in the country.
The CSE had said it found pesticide levels of 11.85 parts per billion drinks tested in 12 Indian states, 24 times higher than limits agreed, but not yet enforced, by the Bureau of Indian Standards.
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