A step in the right direction
New
Delhi, August 30, 2003: The draft notification on standards to regulate the presence
of poisonous metal and pesticide residues in beverages, including soft drinks, has been
issued. The notification, which was issued on August 26, 2003, by the Union ministry of
health and family welfare, and published in the Gazette of India, has been put up for
public response before these standards are notified under the Prevention of Food
Adulteration Act.
The notification rightly proposes more stringent limits for the
presence of pesticides, insecticides and heavy metals in all kinds of beverages (see table). The standards for lead,
for instance, have become 50 times tighter, from 0.5 ppm (or mg/l) to 0.01 ppm. Those for
copper have been fixed at 0.05 ppm (it is 7.0 ppm in existing standards): this is 100
times more stringent than the current norms. For arsenic, the standards for both soft
drinks and carbonated water have been proposed at 0.05 ppm, which is more stringent than
the existing norms. The notification also proposes standards as per international norms
for the presence of cadmium, mercury, chromium and nickel in all beverages (including soft
drinks); these metals have remained totally disregarded – particularly in the case of
soft drinks — by existing standards.
Furthermore, the notification proposes to extend the norms for
pesticide residues that have been notified (and will come into force from January 1, 2004)
for bottled water to beverages.
The draft notification is an important step in ensuring that
regulations on this "food" industry are tightened and made health-based. This is
the imperative, as CSE has always pointed out.
Standards to regulate harmful substances in soft drinks (in
ppm)
| |
Fruit Products Order, 1955 |
Prevention of Food
Adulteration Rules (PFA), 1955 |
Carbonated beverages
IS: 2346:1992 |
Bottled water IS:
14543:1998 |
Draft notification amending
the PFA, Aug 26, 2003* |
| Pesticides |
|
|
|
|
|
| Pesticide residues |
No
standards |
No
standards |
No
standards |
0.0001
(individual)
0.0005 (total) |
0.0001
(individual) 0.0005 (total) |
| Poisonous metals |
|
|
|
|
|
| Arsenic |
0.5 |
0.5 |
0.25 |
0.05 |
0.05 |
| Cadmium |
No standard |
No standard |
No standard |
0.01 |
0.01 |
| Lead (soft drink not including
the concentrates used to make the drink) |
0.5 |
0.5 |
0.5 |
0.01 |
0.01 |
| Lead (concentrates used to make
soft drink) |
2.0 |
2.0 |
— |
— |
— |
| Copper (soft drink not
including the concentrates used to make the soft drinks) |
5.0 |
7.0 |
1.5 |
0.05 |
0.05 |
| Copper (concentrates used to
make soft drinks) |
20.0 |
20.0 |
— |
— |
— |
| Mercury |
— |
No standard |
— |
— |
0.001 |
| Chromium |
— |
No standard |
— |
— |
0.05 |
| Nickel |
— |
No standard |
— |
— |
0.02 |
*Draft notification issued by the
Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on August 26, 2003.The notification uses the
term ‘beverages’ for the following — carbonated water, fruits and vegetable
juices, fruit syrup, fruit squash, fruit beverages or fruit drink, soft drink concentrates
(after dilution as per declaration) and beverages of all kinds.
|
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