The Coke one drinks today is perhaps "much more safe" than the milk one consumed or the fruits and vegetables that one ate, a top official of Hindustan Coca Beverages Private Limited, the bottling division of the Coca-Cola company, said in Bangalore on Thursday.

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The division's area general manager V V Nagaprasad asserted that not only was the content "very much within the permissible limits," but since the whole process was automated "the question of contamination does not arise."

There were four stages each of inspection before and after the bottling process, and even at the retailing stage, Nagaprasad told reporters during a visit to the plant located at city outskirts.

The division adhered to the highest quality standards and was the first plant in the industry to be certified for ISO 14001 in 1996 and ISO 9001 in 2000, he said.

Explaining the various process and quality checks that were stringently followed, Sanjay Sharma, the plant's general manager, regional technical and quality - south, said complaints of contaminated beverages that have been reported were from spurious manufacturers.

Such a case was recently reported from Mangalore and police raids have also been conducted in Hyderabad and Chennai against such spurious facilities.