Date:22/08/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/08/22/stories/2006082202290500.htm

Back Tea Board irked by Pepsi's ad

Our Bureau

Pesticide residue in soft drinks, tea

In defence
Tea Board says figures in the advertisement are deceptive because the residue levels of six chemicals had been totalled despite not being in use at the same time.
The TRF lab reports revealed `nil' residue in tea for 6 chemicals but traces of 2 pesticides, far below the maximum prescribed limit.

Coimbatore , Aug. 21

The Tea Board has criticised PepsiCo India's advertisement on safety of Pepsi vis-à-vis tea and other food products as "highly misleading and objectionable."

The soft drink major has stated that the pesticides residue content in tea worked out to 14.02 ppm (parts per million) compared with 0.36 ppb in Diet Pepsi and 0.09 ppb in Pepsi. Stating that the advertisement was deceptive, as PepsiCo India had totalled the residue levels of the six chemicals - dicofol, ethion, fenazaquin, glyphosphate, glufosinate ammonium and qunialphos, the Executive Director of Tea Board, Mr R.D. Nazeem, said: "It is unfair to arrive at the total residual content of all the chemicals, for all of these are not used at the same time. At no point of time does tea contain this much residues."

Tea analysis

Mr Nazeem also shared the details of an analysis carried out by the UPASI (United Planters' Association of Southern India) Tea Research Foundation.

"The Board picked 133 samples in random from the teas that were showcased for the Golden Leaf India Awards - Southern Tea Competition 2005 to check if the teas conformed to the PFA (Prevention of Food Adulteration Act) norms. "The TRF lab reports revealed `nil' pesticide residue for 6 chemicals but found traces of 2 pesticides, which again was far below the maximum prescribed limit," he said.

He further pointed out that tea is not consumed directly as soft drinks.

"It is put in boiled water and only the infusion is consumed. The amount of residue that gets transferred to the mixture is very low compared with the residue in the black tea. The industry manufactures tea for the global market. Without conforming to norms we cannot compete in the global arena."

Earlier, addressing the 24th Annual General Meeting of the Tea Trade Association of Coimbatore (TTAC), Mr Nazeem called upon the traders to restrain from offering teas at discount.

"We should be proud of what we do instead of consoling ourselves by offering teas at discounted rates. It is disheartening," he said referring to the disparity in the price levels between the teas from South India and the offerings from the North.

The average export cost of South Indian tea hovered at Rs 67/kg while North Indian tea is quoted at around Rs 120/kg.

Exports

Iraq, Pakistan, the UK and Egypt prefer the CTC teas from South India. Tea exports to Pakistan has risen by 63 per cent between January and June 2006 compared with the corresponding period of the earlier year.

The Board in association with Indian Bank, Hill Area Development Programme (HADP) and Indco factories has initiated the Kundah Revival Project. "We have helped the small growers to prune and replant the bushes. We have completed 100 acres and are targeting to cover another 1,000 acres in the Nilgiris this year," he said.

The total holding of the 65,000-plus small growers is about 1 lakh acres in the Nilgiris.

He said there were problems with the auction system and he agreed that reforms were overdue and said the Board was striving to put in place a robust system very soon. "We will seek the advice of the buyers and sellers for betterment of the system and for getting a better price," he said.