New Delhi: The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on August 17 rejected criticism of its tests on soft drinks by cola majors and said a confirmatory test was done in an independent lab, the details of which will be submitted to the government committee looking into the matter.

"The confirmatory test (using a mass spectrophotometer) was carried out in an independent laboratory," CSE said in a statement.

"The report (of confirmatory test) will be made available to the government committee looking into the matter," it said.

This comes in the wake of cola majors like Pepsico and Coca Cola alleging that the results of the test by CSE were not confirmed by using a mass spectrophotometer, a detector used with gas chromotograph.

CSE said the results of the confirmatory test were not included in the report since it was done in an independent laboratory.

Asked to name the laboratory, CSE sources declined to reveal, saying according to the confidentiality pact (with that lab), they were not supposed to do so.

CSE said the results of its previous study on bottled water were validated by government testing.

The release said cola majors were trying to confuse the masses by questioning the methodology used and resorting to technical terms not easily understood by consumers.

"Pepsico and Coca Cola are trying every trick in the corporate book to discredit the concerns raised by CSE report on pesticides in aerated drinks sold in India," it said.

On the other contention of cola major on nitrogen used in place of helium, CSE said the latter was also an inert gas and was easily available in the required purity grade.

PTI