Indian state bans soft drinks after Coke, Pepsi gets toxic label

breitbart.com ^ | 08-04-06 | WestVirginiaRebel

[WestVirginiaRebel]

An Indian state has banned the sale of soft drinks as the country's highest court told the US beverage giants Pepsico and Coca-Cola to reveal the ingredients of their products.

"The ban will be in force in all educational institutes, including medical and technical colleges and universities and offenders will be punished," a spokesman from the administration of northern Rajasthan state announced Friday.

[MimirsWell]

A halal drink? :) I think it will take sometime before Mecca cola arrives in India, let alone capture people's imagination like Pepsi and Coca Cola do in India.

Look, we Indians on FR are not saying Coca Cola and Pepsi must be banned or that Americans are killing people with their "wicked cultural invasion", blah blah. We like these drinks. Is it bad to ban them till they get their act together and start putting safe products on the market? We are not proposing "obesity taxes" or even making these companies pay for selling drinks that some people say are bad for health as is. We are just addressing the additional chemicals that should not be there, that are not there in the same drinks in Europe and the US. I think the move of the Indian government is to be appreciated, not criticized.

[gentlestrength]

They should pass a law that Indian call centers must identify themselves as being Indian when talking to Americans.

But how would we understand them telling us that?!

[gentlestrength]

many of the samples contained DDT

As Ann Coulter pointed out in "Godless," we're so worried about DDT that instead we allow millions to die in Africa by a disease which DDT could have prevented.

[gentlestrength]

They're mad because we're supporting Pakistan. It's blackmail.

[ConservativeMan55]

LOL

[gentlestrength]

Dear India,

We understand it is difficult to keep up with the complexity of technological advances and changes, requiring such in-depth analysis as would be difficult for a nation in your situation, and so we want to be as helpful to you as possible.

In compliance with your request, please be advised that the following are the ingredients in our products:

1. Water
2. Air bubbles
3. Cola nut, finely ground
4. Sweetener

Sincerely,
Pepsi and Coke

[Minutemen]

India's gonna have to settle for Sam*s Choice.

[MimirsWell]

I think you need to stick to the core of this thread. Iis it BAD to ban a drink that is dangerous? Don't give me useless parallels of call-centers. We are not trying to replace Pepsi or coke with a home-grown drink. On the contrary, now they are spreading the net to test samples of every drink there is in the market in India.

You can claim technological advantage and if your brain can't concoct anything more than the recipe you posted, god save you.

[MimirsWell]

You'll be more mad if we end up not buying from Lockheed Martin and Boeing, so I suggest you analyze why you are arming a state that has supported terrorists and will probably allow China to get a look at the F-16s so that they can take your plans down when you will try to protect Taiwan.

[monkapotamus]

[Dog Gone]

ROFL, that cow should be getting nervous.

[sukhoi-30mki]

Check the websites of Honda, Toyota or GM to find out who is selling how many 3wheel contraptions in India

[AnAmericanMother]

It's not a question of "threatening" Coke or Pepsi, it's using the local court system and false allegations to get them OUT of their market.

I'll tell you again, I don't believe for a moment that Coke or Pepsi would allow this to happen. They are ALL over their bottling companies, because their brand integrity is at stake. Surprise inspections, etc. And there aren't any pesticides in the syrup -- you think they're crazy to risk that? The syrup is tested extensively and there would be no reason to put pesticides in it. It wouldn't save money and it would risk brand integrity.

If the same pesticides are showing up in samples from 23 states, I would suspect that somebody is doctoring the samples, or the syrup is being contaminated with the pesticides at some central distribution point.

And again I would look to the efforts of a local manufacturer of a competing product to get the big name products barred from their market area. Follow the money.

[Mase]

If what you say is true and there is indeed no pessticides in the soft drinks then there would be no controversy in the first place.

I thought you were referring to the ingredients on the label. I would like to know what Coca Cola and Pepsico have to say about this situation. There was a big controversy here not too long ago about benzene found in certain soft drinks. No one bothered to mention that the amount of benzene found in the drinks was less than half what a person living in any American big city would breathe in on any given day.

Corruption is rife in India and I think, before any conclusions are reached, the other side of the story needs to be told.

[aruanan]

Federal MPs Thursday demanded a nationwide ban on Pepsi and Coke after the privately-funded Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said 11 drinks sold by the two US companies contained unacceptable doses of pesticides.

Right, people should be free to drink pesticide-laced soft drinks without fear of government intervention.

Note the weasal words "unacceptable doses" and "deeply laced". These are completely subjective and polemic. Of course, locally produced Coke and Pepsi could have been contaminated by bottling plants that bottle more than Coke and Pepsi. As far as their listed ingredients go, though, there is nothing there that in the right amounts aren't harmless or in the wrong amounts aren't deadly. "Food" is just the happy-face label applied to a chemical assemblage. Any one of those chemicals in the appropriate amount could make you sick or kill you. And the lack of many of those chemicals in the right amount could sicken and kill you as well.

[Dog Gone]

This all results from a lawsuit alleging that the drinks contained dangerous chemicals like caffeine?

I hope tea has been outlawed in India.

[Gengis Khan]

Those "contraptions" taking on the daily wear and tear of the famed Indian roads can beat the best battle tanks US has ever made. A Chevy (made in US) wont last very long on rural Indian roads.

[Gengis Khan]

"India needs to quit thinking that government knows best how to control everything in the economy. "

This has nothing to do with controlling of economy this issue is about a food item consumed by people having harmful chemicals in it. Such stringent regulations on consumables existing in US also. So don't have to start yelling if India pass such regulations.

[Gengis Khan]

Pepsi and Coke

We definitely do have the technological capability to do a thorough analysis of the contents of Coke and Pepsi as much as we have the technological capability to drop the bomb on our neighbour. But I guess there is no point going the entire length. We have decided to ban Pepsi and Coke simply because we found that pesticides tastes far better than Coke and Pepsi and costs far less. Besides we have better use for the water (such as for drinking etc). So STFU and quit whining.

Sincerely,
India