All our beverages meet Indian as well as international standards of product safety and quality. Our products are regularly tested at independent national and international laboratories such as VIMTA (Hyderabad) for Product Water / Sugar Syrup/ Packaged Drinking Water, MWH Laboratories (California, USA) for Packaged Drinking Water and CSL, a world-leading UK government laboratory in London for finished beverages. These are amongst the few laboratories in the world which have the required ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation for pesticide residues testing (which is in the process of validating its methodology).

Pesticides are substances commonly used in agriculture for preventing, destroying, attracting, repelling, or controlling any pest including unwanted species of plants or animals during the production, storage, transport, distribution, and processing of food, agricultural commodities, or animal feeds.

Various pesticides are known as insecticides, nematicides, fungicides, herbicides, and rodenticides, i.e., agents primarily effective against insects, nematodes (or roundworms), fungi, weeds, and rodents, respectively.

Crops treated with pesticides may contain remnants of the spray when they are sold in the market. These remnants may pose unacceptable health risk if consumed. Regulators determine the amount of residue that can be safely consumed and this is legally established as a maximum residue limit (MRL) under the Food and Drugs Act (FDA).

The MRL is the maximum concentration (in ppm or ppb) of a pesticide residue that is legally permitted in, or on a food commodity.

MRLs are set at levels which would result in consumption of any residue at a level substantially lower than the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for pesticide residues.

MRLs are set:
•  Based on scientific data
•  After confirming their safety to consumers
•  When validated analytical methods are available to monitor and enforce compliance.

The approval for use of any pesticide in a country is subject to its safety evaluation. Safety levels for any pesticide are calculated over a number of formal assessments. The Codex Alimentarius Commission is an international body which sets international guidelines on many elements of food safety, including pesticide residues on food.

The ADI for any given pesticide is a measure of the quantity of a particular chemical in food that can be consumed daily over a lifetime without any known risk to health. It is expressed in relation to bodyweight.

One of the most important tools in the safety evaluation of pesticide use on food is the calculation of what is an Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI).

Pesticides	ADI, mg/ kg/ body weight	ADI, %
Alorin & dieldrin BHC Carberyl Carbofuran Chlorpyrifos Cyhalothrin Cypermethrin DDT Dicrotophos Dimethoate Endosulfan Fenvalerate Heptachlor Lindane Malathion Methamidophos Methomyl Mevinphos Monocrotophos Parathion Parathion-mehtyl Permethrin Profenofos	0.0001 NAa 0.003 0.002 0.01 0.002 0.05 0.02 NA 0.004 0.006 0.02 0.0001 0.001 0.3 0.004 0.03 0.0008 0.0006 0.004 0.003 0.05 0.01	5 - 0.4 0.25 0.01 0.2 0.1 0.21 - 1.05 1.6 0.01 7 0.1 <0.01 6.38 0.05 0.25 2 0.02 0.43 <0.01 0.2

*NA = ADI not available from WHO.

ADIs and percentages of the ADI based on the highest daily intakes of Thais (Asians), extracted from Vongbudohapitak et al, 2001 

ADI is derived by first conducting diet trials on laboratory animals and observing the maximum level of pesticide residue that can be consumed without any visible effects. This level expressed as percentage of body weight is known as the No Observable Adverse Effect Level (NOAEL or NOEL). The animals are tested for risks like birth defects, cancer, reproductive changes, damage to the nervous system, harm to organs such as the kidney or liver, and many other measurable health indicators.

These results in an ADI for humans which is 100 times lower than the NOAEL consumption rate established from trials on laboratory animals.

No, Our processes actually remove pesticide residues from ingredients to comply with prevalent standards.

India’s economy is driven majorly by agriculture, pesticides are used extensively in agriculture and health control activities like mass application to control spread of malaria, dengue etc. These pesticides find their way into the food chain due to run-off from the application site to ground water streams and surface water bodies, and also on the food commodities by the virtue of application.

The sugar used in all Coca-Cola products is obtained from sugar mills specially selected after meticulous screening. At Coca-Cola in India, the sugar is put through a specially developed ‘Hot Carbon Treatment process’ which ensures that the sugar syrup is safe in all aspects.

The flavours used in our products also meet all safety specifications as required by FEMA (Flavour and Extract Manufacturers Association). All food additives in the flavours and flavourings have been approved for use by the Central Committee for Food Standards (CCFS) of the Government of India, and are based on standards recommended by the Joint FAO / WHO Expert Committee.

Water used in the manufacture of all Coca-Cola products undergo a rigorous multiple barrier filtration process to eliminate pesticide residues, other organic and inorganic impurities that are normally present in water. This process ensures that the water used:

1. meets the specifications prescribed by the PFA, and

2. meets the BIS standard for Packaged Drinking Water viz., IS 14543:2004. The BIS standard for pesticide residues is similar to the world’s most stringent standards, viz., that of the European Union.

Our products comply with applicable stringent national regulations as well as international norms for pesticide residues to deliver a safe product for consumption.

Our products meet different needs of consumers: Hydration, Replenishment, Fun, Nutrition etc. The consumers can choose from our range of beverages i.e. water, Carbonated Soft Drink (CSD), Juices, Tea & Coffee, low calorie beverages based on their need.

About 80 percent of people's total water comes from drinking water and beverages and the other 20 percent are derived from food.

Moreover, our products, sweetened with sugar, provide ready carbohydrates for instant energy. In spite of our nutritional contributions, we market our products simply as a source of refreshment. Consumers wishing to control their ///calorie///intake can also choose from our range of low-calorie beverages.

According to most nutrition experts, the best way to ensure that you follow a good diet is to eat a variety of foods in moderation.

The key reasons for differences in testing results are:

1) Accreditation of the laboratory -- Although the NGO laboratory is ISO9000 certified, which means it has quality systems, but it doesn’t have the required ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation to ensure that it has the capability to consistently generate reproducible results. All the laboratories where we test our products in India or abroad have been certified against ISO 17025 standard.

2) The equipment that is used – It is essential to separate the pesticide residues from other substances in the product so that individual pesticide residues can be identified. This is possible only if the equipment used has the capability to correctly isolate these pesticide residues. Otherwise it can generate false results. The equipment used by the NGO laboratory lacks the capability for generating accurate results.

3) The testing methodology that is used -- There are issues with the sample preparation and extraction of potential contaminants out of the multi-component matrix of a soft drink. This will be prone to generating false results and incorrect interpretations.

After reviewing the NGO adopted methodologies, these laboratories which regularly test our products have outlined the probable causes for these differences. Read More….

•  The methods used to test our finished products have been developed by the Company and Central Science Laboratory (CSL), an UK government laboratory.

•  Although the validation of these methods has not been completed, they represent the state of the art in terms of procedure and technology.

•  CSL runs an international program to test the proficiency of laboratories in analysis, including pesticide residues.

An Accredited laboratory ensures “tested once and accepted everywhere” whereas an ISO 9001 certified laboratory does not itself demonstrate the competence of the laboratory to produce technically valid data and results.

Testing through an accredited laboratory is preferred over a non - accredited one because it minimizes the risk of unreliable results which, in turn, reduces the risk for manufacturers or suppliers to produce or supply a faulty product.

An ISO 17025 accredited laboratory also has their laboratory staff calibrated so that they can deliver reliable results each time and every time which may not be true with an ISO 9001 certified laboratory.

Finally, an ISO 17025 accredited laboratory has minimized chances of retesting over ISO 9001 certified laboratory

The Government of India has authorized NABL as the sole accreditation body for Testing and Calibration laboratories in this country which certifies the laboratories against ISO 17025 standard.

All the laboratories where we test our products in India and abroad have been certified against ISO 17025 standard.

Validation of method is the planned and documented procedure to establish its performance characteristics. The performance characteristics or the validation parameters of the method determine the suitability of its intended use.

A method is validated when it generates results that are accurate, precise and specific each time and every time.

We as a company have always supported the need for science-based criteria for pesticide residues in foods. The major issue in roll-out of such standard is non–availability of a validated test method. Without a sound testing method, standard cannot be enforced. We are working with the Indian government, trade bodies, NGOs, scientists to develop a sound; validated testing protocol and have sponsored project at CSL, London to develop a protocol that can be shared worldwide including the Government of India.

We use a combination of laboratories in India as well as around the world.

1. VIMTA (India) www.vimta.com for water/sugar syrup/packaged drinking water

2. MWH laboratories www.mwhlabs.com (California, U.S.) for packaged drinking water

3. Central Science Laboratories (London, U.K),www.csl.gov.uk a world-renowned and independent laboratory, for finished products

4. Our own internal laboratories at all our manufacturing locations.

We always have and continue to test our products at world's most highly respected laboratories, with a specific expertise in pesticide residue analysis, to ensure our products are safe for consumption.

The Coca-Cola Quality System adopts the most stringent standard available. The EU criteria for pesticide residues in bottled water are currently the most stringent in the world.

While the validation of these methods has not been completed, they employ the best in terms of procedure and technology. Our experts are confident that these methods produce the most accurate and reliable results possible.

The test results that we refer to were obtained using the best, most advanced test methods available for the detection of pesticide residues in beverages that contain many ingredients. The Company and one of the world's top laboratories, CSL, have both been working to develop these methods. Read More….