Pepsico misleading people: CSE

The CSE accuses the cola major of selectively quoting from the Joint Parliamentary Committee report to 'mislead' the public.

Countering Pepsico's "public awareness" campaign on the pesticide content in its product, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on Monday accused the cola major of "selectively quoting" from the Joint Parliamentary Committee report to "mislead" the public.

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In a statement issued, CSE said the advertisements released by Pepsico in newspapers on Monday was a "clever copywriting full of half-truths."

The advertisements claim that the colas are clean as they meet drinking water standards. "The data they put out in their defence is from the 2004 Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC). But they are selectively quoting from the JPC to mislead us," it said.

Claiming that Pespsico and Coca Cola have not released information about even one bottle of their product they have tested in 2005 or 2006, CSE said that the Pepsico used data from two brands to say that they are clean but hide the data for three other brands, which do not meet drinking water standards.

A CSE study released last week found that 57 bottles of softdrinks of various brands from 12 states contained residues between 10-50 times above the final standards, which were yet to be notified.