Indians tell cola giants to reveal all August 08, 2006 BOMBAY: India's highest court has demanded that Coca-Cola reveal its secret formula, for the first time in 120 years. The Supreme Court ordered the US soft-drinks maker, along with its rival, PepsiCo, to supply details of the chemical composition and ingredients of their products after a study released last week claimed they contained unacceptable levels of insecticides.
Judges SBSinha and Dalveer Bhandari directed the companies to file their replies within four weeks, the Press Trust of India reported.
"If they don't comply, then the court has the authority to suspend sales," said Shreyas Patel, a lawyer at Fox Mandal Little, India's oldest law firm.
"But no one is going to give away a 120-year-old secret, especially in a country like India. Someone would go and make it themselves."
Coca-Cola's original recipe, according to company policy, is kept in a bank vault in Atlanta, where only two executives -- banned from travelling on the same plane -- know it.
The court order followed the release of a report by the Centre for Science and Environment, a non-government body, that said 11 brands sold by the two soft-drinks makers contained high levels of pesticide residues.
The centre said samples from 12 states showed that Pepsi products contained 30 times more pesticides than in 2003, when a similar study was conducted. Coke samples had 25 times the amount of pesticides as three years ago.
The report caused a row in India's lower house of parliament, where MPs from across the political spectrum called for a ban on the sale of Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
"These companies are playing with the lives of millions and we can't ignore such warnings any more," said Vijay Kumar Malhotra, from the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, which walked out over the issue.
It is not the first time Coca-Cola and Pepsi have been mired in controversy in India.
They are regular whipping boys for politicians who regard Western food products as a threat to Indian heritage, though sceptics suggest their opposition has more to do with the companies' virtual monopoly of the market than with genuinely held feelings of cultural protectionism.
The US companies joined forces through the Indian Soft Drink Manufacturers Association to reject the findings.
"Consumer safety is paramount to us," they said.
"The soft drinks manufactured in India comply with stringent international norms and all applicable national regulations."
The Bureau of Indian Standards, the highest government body to maintain product quality certification, has set a pesticide standard for bottled water but not for soft drinks.
In 2003, at the time of the last report, pesticide claims provoked a backlash. Schools banned colas, and fruit juice sales boomed, as yoga gurus reminded people of the value of healthy drinking.
Coca-Cola's sales dropped by as much as 11 per cent in the following financial quarter.
