US soft drinks lose their fizz in India

This marks significant progress considering that soft carbonated drinks amount to a minor part of most Indian's daily diet. Local papers have wasted no time in raking up evidence pointing to the high levels of pesticide residue present in milk and bread, higher still than those found in the carbonated drinks.

This prompted the rather dramatic soundbite from the CSE that “milk and vegetables also have nutrition. They give us something in the poison-nutrition trade-off.”

This does not alter the fact that pesticide residue levels really shouldn't be this high in the first place and wouldn't be if India wasn't so heavy in its use of pesticides.

The emphasis that the debate has placed on Coca-Cola, Pepsico, and whether or not their drinks contain acceptable levels of pesticide residue, is masking a much bigger issue. What the debate needs to provoke is government action on food safety.

The government should shoulder the responsibility for a lack of standards and regulation. It needs to show greater public accountability and tighten legislation. In some respects, it is surprising that this issue hasn't emerged sooner. Events like the 1984 Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal - in which a toxic gas leak from the plant claimed the lives of several thousand people - have increased public awareness of the impact of environmental issues on health. The government has subsequently come under pressure over issues like GM crops, so why not food and drink standards?

In a country where there is no choice to “go organic”, and even if there was, it would be prohibitively expensive for most, the government should be looking at the issue throughout the food and drink production chain from better regulating the use of pesticides to implementing quality and safety standards before the point of consumption.

In many respects, if such standards had been in use in the first place, this controversy and the subsequent investment fears, arguably wouldn’t have happened. When in opposition in 2003, the Congress Party took issue with the government on the CSE’s findings and the need for better standards. Now that Congress is in power at the federal level, it is time to see if this proves to be political rhetoric or whether the party will make good on its earlier stance.