Bottled Water: How Safe?
The bottled water industry has spent billions over the past decade to sell you on the idea that bottled water is better than tap water. Well the short answer is they are both unhealthy. One of the most ironic parts of the bottled water tragedy is that the water bottling industry gets the water free, filters it, bottles it and sells it back to us at 1,900% profit. The ironic part is that tap water is legislated to be 7.0 pH neutral. They first dump a TON of cholrine in the water to kill off all the bad bacteria, this makes it highly acidic.
In India around 100 companies sell an estimated 424 million litres of bottled water valued at around Rs 200 crore in the country annually . Most bottlers claim that their water is 100 per cent bacteria-free and contains minerals that make it tastier and healthier. But is the water in these bottles really safe to drink? Do they conform to international or national standards?
To find out, the Ahmedabad-based Consumer Education and Research Society (CERS), an independent non-profit institution with a sophisticated product-testing laboratory, recently carried out a detailed study on 13 major brands of bottled water available in the country. The national brands -- Bisleri (separate samples were taken from their units in Bangalore, Ghaziabad, Calcutta and Baroda) and Bailley (Mumbai and Surat) -- were selected on the basis of their dominant position in the overall market. Bisil (Mehsana), Golden Eagle (Chennai), Aquaspa (Mumbai),Saiganga (Ahmednagar), Nirantar (Thane), Trupthi (Chennai) and Yes (Nadiad) were included because of their regional popularity. To conform to international standards for such testing, 21 bottles of each brand were tested in the CERS laboratory against "analytical" and "sensory" parameters as well as for "microbiological" contamination. To ensure fairness, the results were sent to the individual companies for their comments.
So how safe is bottled water? Not that safe, says the CERS survey. As many as 10 of the 13 brands had foreign floating objects in clear violation of norms. Again during a surprise inspection by the health committee chairman Manjunatha Reddy and team at two mineral water units in the Bangalore on January 11, 2011, it was
found that mineral water production unit owners were bottling borewell water. The units were also illegally using several branded labels on the bottles to market the water. The standing committee visited a mineral water production unit called AM Enterprises and found the owner selling water without an ISI mark from the Bureau of India Standards. He was found mixing mineral water with borewell water and selling it in cans to the public.
The bottled water industry has spent billions over the past decade to sell you on the idea that bottled water is better than tap water. Well the short answer is they are both unhealthy. One of the most ironic parts of the bottled water tragedy is that the water bottling industry gets the water free, filters it, bottles it and sells it back to us at 1,900% profit. The ironic part is that tap water is legislated to be 7.0 pH neutral. They first dump a TON of cholrine in the water to kill off all the bad bacteria, this makes it highly acidic.
In India around 100 companies sell an estimated 424 million litres of bottled water valued at around Rs 200 crore in the country annually . Most bottlers claim that their water is 100 per cent bacteria-free and contains minerals that make it tastier and healthier. But is the water in these bottles really safe to drink? Do they conform to international or national standards?
To find out, the Ahmedabad-based Consumer Education and Research Society (CERS), an independent non-profit institution with a sophisticated product-testing laboratory, recently carried out a detailed study on 13 major brands of bottled water available in the country. The national brands -- Bisleri (separate samples were taken from their units in Bangalore, Ghaziabad, Calcutta and Baroda) and Bailley (Mumbai and Surat) -- were selected on the basis of their dominant position in the overall market. Bisil (Mehsana), Golden Eagle (Chennai), Aquaspa (Mumbai),Saiganga (Ahmednagar), Nirantar (Thane), Trupthi (Chennai) and Yes (Nadiad) were included because of their regional popularity. To conform to international standards for such testing, 21 bottles of each brand were tested in the CERS laboratory against "analytical" and "sensory" parameters as well as for "microbiological" contamination. To ensure fairness, the results were sent to the individual companies for their comments.
So how safe is bottled water? Not that safe, says the CERS survey. As many as 10 of the 13 brands had foreign floating objects in clear violation of norms. Again during a surprise inspection by the health committee chairman Manjunatha Reddy and team at two mineral water units in the Bangalore on January 11, 2011, it was
found that mineral water production unit owners were bottling borewell water. The units were also illegally using several branded labels on the bottles to market the water. The standing committee visited a mineral water production unit called AM Enterprises and found the owner selling water without an ISI mark from the Bureau of India Standards. He was found mixing mineral water with borewell water and selling it in cans to the public.
No comments:
Post a Comment