PUNE: In the ongoing controversy over soft-drinks, Union minister of state for food-processing N.T. Shanmugam has said that soft-drink manufacturers' licences would be cancelled if a second set of samples tests positive for excessive pesticide residues.


The minister was responding to the controversy triggered off earlier this week by a report from the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), which claimed nearly 15 popular soft-drink brands, including Coca Cola and Pepsi were found to have pesticide residues way beyond tolerable limits.



He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on 'Food processing industry: the present and the future' held here on Saturday.



Shanmugam said samples of 15 different soft drink brands, collected from four regions of the country — Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi — had been sent to the government-owned Central Food Technological Research Institute at Mysore. A result is expected early next week.



The minister, however, did not explain why the samples, collected in May this year, were sent to the laboratory after a two-month delay.



"It is a time-consuming process," is all he said. Promising stringent action against anyone found jeopardising consumer health, Shanmugam said consultations were in progress between the health, law and food ministries to fix the norms for pesticide content.


"So far, the country has not set standard norms, but follows the European Union norms," he said. The health ministry has been asked to prepare a detailed report in this regard at the earliest