The Food Standards Agency ordered soft drinks companies to lower levels of benzene and demanded urgent talks with the industry.
It asked companies to make sure levels of the cancer causing chemical were “undetectable”.
Some supermarket products were pulled from shelves but another 22, including leading brands from the likes of Schweppes, Robinsons, Kia-Ora, Vimto and Lilt were found to contain levels of benzene greater than allowed in tap water.
The British Soft Drinks Association said the test results showed benzene levels were very low and that soft
Financial Times 01/04/06 page 4
The Times 01/04/06 page 1-2
The Daily Telegraph 01/04/06 page 11