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Water World
Packaged water has flooded the market. Even multinationals have entered the fray. The common man, on his part, has confused packaged drinking water with mineral water.
The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act stipulates that natural mineral water is to be collected directly from natural or drilled sources of underground water bearing strata and not from public water supply sources.
The Act also strictly prohibits the transportation of natural mineral water in containers for packaging or for any other process.
"Only packaged drinking water is available in Kerala," says the director of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), Thiruvananthapuram, K. Ambarasu.
"Packaged water can be marketed under the label of `natural mineral water' only when it is packaged in clean and sterile food grade containers, close to the source, without any treatment other than those permitted by the PFA. Only ISI-marked brands are allowed to market packaged drinking products," he says.
"ISI Certification is given for a period of one year and the companies have to renew it yearly. During this period, the BIS monitors the purity of the products. If any type of contamination is found, the certification is cancelled," he adds.
There are only three brands of `mineral water' in the country at present.
Two are in Himachal Pradesh and one is at Nainital.
So far, around 22 brands of packaged drinking water companies have ISI certification in Kerala alone.
Normally two reasons are identified for the contamination of bottled water.
"The packaging must be tamper-proof. Otherwise it will permit the growth of bacteria and other pathogens. The material used for manufacturing the bottles should be of food grade quality. Otherwise, the material itself will contaminate the water," points out Babu, technical assistant, Government Analysis Lab.
"Earlier, treated tap water was sold as packaged drinking water. But, now, the situation has changed thanks to the strict monitoring facility," says Satheesh Kumar, a Food Inspector.
V. DILEEP
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