There's No Fizz In This

PepsiCo and Coca-Cola should thank Kerala CM V.S. Achuthanandan for his ignorance of their products. VS and his health minister P.K. Sreemathy thought the only two harmful beverages were Coke and Pepsi. "The cabinet discussed only those two," she told reporters who quizzed her on the nine other brands which the Centre for Science and Environment has said contains pesticides. Meanwhile, Biman Bose, the Left Front chairman in West Bengal, has given the soft drinks makers a clean chit, saying tests in his state didn’t show any hazardous ingredients in the drinks. The cola ban in Kerala has been merely symbolic. It’s still not too difficult to get a Coke or a Pepsi if one wants it. There’s also the small matter of colas having a very small market in Kerala. The average per capita consumption is just three bottles a year in the state while it is 55 in Delhi.