Chennai: The Indian products of Pepsi were quality wise the same as the company's international products, and there was nothing that warranted a change in the company's production processes, a senior executive of the company said today (Feb 16, 2004).

"There is nothing that warranted a change in our processes in the wake of the latest controversies relating to pesticides' content in aerated products of Pepsi and other companies as our processes are perfectly in accordance with prescribed norms," Shashi Kalathil, executive director, (marketing), Pepsi Food Private Ltd, said.

Responding to questions, he said the company welcomed the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) report on the issue, adding that the JPC had only placed the issue on a more scientific platform to bring out the truth relating to pesticides content.

He said the company was committed to seeing that the much-scarce water resources of the country were not overexploited by the company, adding that investments would be made to ensure efficiency in water usage by the company.

He said the sales of Pepsi products, which had come down at least by 10 per cent in the wake of the controversy, were picking up of late.

Shashi was in the city in connection with presenting to the media Tamil actor Surya, the latest brand ambassador for the company in the South. Surya will be promoting the brand along with South Indian actor Madhavan, the existing brand ambassador for Pepsi soft drinks in the South.