The Hindu : Withdrawal of ISI certification to water bottlers likely

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 12, 2003

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Withdrawal of ISI certification to water bottlers likely

By Gargi Parsai

New Delhi Feb. 11. Following the exposure of high pesticide residues in bottled drinking water, the Bureau of Indian Standards under the Ministry of Food and Consumer Affairs, is considering withdrawal of the Indian Standard Institute (ISI) certification issued to these companies unless they come up with samples that adhere to new norms.

The Bureau is now reviewing and upgrading all standards for all food items under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act to make them compatible with international standards.

However, in the case of Packaged Natural Mineral Water and Packaged Drinking Water since the new norms are yet to be notified and the old standards were not specific about the pesticide residues, the bottled water companies have gone scot-free. The sale of bottled water is said to have gone down by about 45 per cent since the news broke last week.

Besides, the new specifications have to be adopted and specified by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act.

On Monday, the Minister of Food and Consumer Affairs, Sharad Yadav, wrote to the Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Sushma Swaraj, requesting her to initiate action for aligning the new specifications through amendment in the Prevention of Food Adulteration Rules "on priority basis.''

Since the use of the "capillary method'' to detect pesticide residues will involve setting up of new processing plants and laboratories, the Government is considering whether the bottled water companies be give some time to adapt new standards or they should be made application soon after notification.

Under the new specification, the analysis should be conducted by an accreditated laboratory using internationally established test methods using the specified pesticide residue limits.

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