Pammal, Dec 23 (ANI): Indra Nooyi, the chairman and chief executive officer of the food and beverages major, PepsiCo, has said that the company's products are the safest in the entire range of products in the food chain.

Nooyi said that there was no need to doubt the safety of PepsiCo's products.

"The government has suggested pesticide standards for carbonated soft drinks, which is much lower than what is in baby foods in the European Union. They (government) are working a testing mechanism and when that happens they can go ahead and test the products. But our product are the safest products in any product in the entire food chain," said Nooyi.

Beverages made by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo were embroiled in controversies after an environment group said their products contained dangerous levels of pesticides.

Both Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have rejected the findings of the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) that said tests conducted by it on samples of the drinks across the country found high levels of pesticide traces in them.

Although, annual sales of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo products in India, at nearly 1.29 billion dollars, accounts for a tiny portion of their global business, the CSE report and the regional bans did hurt their high profile images.

During her visit to PepsiCo's waste management centre at Pammal on the outskirts of Chennai, Nooyi said it was important for India to build partnerships with private players and voluntary groups in order to manage waste.

"It's important for developing countries like India to accelerate its own development, to work in partnership with governments, with NGOs and other entities that have a sense of community and sense of nation to make the community in which we operate a better place," Nooyi said. (ANI)