Packaged water in ‘high-risk’ food category

Apex food regulator, the Food Safety and Services Association of India, has put packaged drinking water and mineral water in the ‘high-risk food’ category mandating annual inspections and third party audits of the facilities manufacturing these products.

Notifying the order, the FSSAI said that facilities will get central licences to produce and sell packaged drinking and mineral water only if they subject themselves to yearly inspection and get their business audited by FSSAI recognized third party food safety auditing agency every year.

At present, the high-risk food categories include dairy products and analogues, meat and meat products, including poultry, fish and fish products.

The inclusion of packaged water in high risk food category follows an October amendment when the government ended the requirement for BIS certification for packaged water.

Now, all makers of packaged water will need to do an annual risk based inspection as a pre requisite to get a licence or registration from the Centre. — TNS