Fanta, Frooti, Mirinda contains the highest percentage of pesticide levels, reveals studies

As the summers are kicked-in and so does the shops have stuff themselves with all the necessary items i.e the cold-drinks and soft-drinks. And possibilities are you might be enjoying your favourite drink while reading this article. But the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on Wednesday came out with a new report on the levels of pesticides in soft drinks available in the market.

The report indicated the presence of an average of three to five different pesticides in all the samples, 24 times higher than the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) norms, which have been finalised but not yet official.

The CSE conducted their study based on the 57 samples of 11 soft drink brands from 25 different manufacturing plants of Coca-Cola and Pepsico, spread over 12 States.

The sample reveals bring in shocking readings from the soft drink giant Coca-Cola in Kolkata exceeded the BIS standards by 140 times for the deadly pesticide Lindane, a confirmed carcinogen.

In a similar incident of Coca-Cola plant in Thane contained 200 times more of the neurotoxin, Chlorpyrifos, than the BIS standard, said Sunita Narain of CSE releasing the report here.

In 2003, the average level of pesticide residue in samples from Delhi was 34 times above the same BIS standard, but this time the CSE has found pesticide residue as high as 52 times in bottles brought in Kolkata and 42 times in bottles bought in Nainital and Gorakhpur. Similarly, bottles bought in Mumbai, manufactured in Thane and Nagpur, allegedly had residue 34 times above the BIS standard.