Centre for Science and Environment on Wednesday said PepsiCo's 'Mountain Dew' contained caffeine despite being a non-cola drink, a charge the multinational firm countered saying the soft drink was being sold with the same contents worldwide.

Soft drinks; hard truths

"Pepsi's Mountain Dew is harmful for children, pregnant and lactating women. It is the only non-cola softdrink we found to have caffeine," CSE chairperson Sunita Narayan told a crowded news conference in New Delhi.

The report comes within a year of CSE's startling revelation that many softdrink brands had high pesticide residues leading to a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the matter.

"Only cola drinks have certain level of caffeine. In India, no non-cola softdrink has ceffeine except Mountain Dew, a highly successful product of Pepsi with a significant market share," Narayan said.

When contacted, Pepsi officials said, "We sell the same softdrink in other parts of the world, including developed countries".

But CSE contends that in the US both the caffeinated and non-caffeinated versions of Mountain Dew are available while many countries permit caffeine use only in cola soft drinks.

MNCs like Pepsi were trying to sell harmful products in India, which was not the case with developed nations, she said adding, "If our laws are weak, MNCs will try to use the regulations in their favour".