India Tries to Contain Tempest Over Soft Drink Safety

Coca-Cola and Pepsi are teaming up in India to restore consumer confidence. New Delhi's busy INA market place – which sells everything from Oreos cookie made in China to "Hot Eats" of North India – had posters proclaiming the safety of Cola products. The campaign comes after a respected NGO issued a report stating that 12 leading soft drink brands – all owned by Coca-Cola or PepsiCo – had unsafe levels of pesticides. Subsequent tests found the beverages safe, but not before outrage had spread across the country. The two companies have long been targeted by protesters because they symbolize globalization and largely dominate the country's soft drink market. The report exacerbated these tensions, particularly when people discovered that soft drinks sold in Europe and the US were also tested and found safe. Despite such pervasive anger, many claim that the problem is not with the multinationals, but with the government that failed to regulate them. Unsafe levels of pesticides would never be found in European or American beverages, officials say, because they are strictly regulated by the government. Thus, the battle may soon be waged over whether to adopt standards like the US or the EU, which is substantially less strict. – YaleGlobal