Through a notification dated 12 October, the FSSAI has notified the draft regulations to amend the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011regarding standards for spring water. The FSSAI has invited comments and suggestions from stakeholders within a period of 30 days of publication of the draft regulation. These regulations may be called the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives)……….Amendment Regulations, 2017. Once they are revised these standards will be implemented within a period of six months.
In the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011, in regulation for ‘Mineral Water’ (2.10.7)
The following two clauses
- Treatment and handling
- All Mineral Water shall conform to the following standards
will now be numbered as 3 and 4 instead of 2 and 3 as numbered previously and
Description and Types of Mineral water are numbered 2.
In ‘Description and Types of Mineral water,’ the new category of Spring Water will be added after ‘Carbonated Natural Mineral Water’.
Spring Water – Spring water is defined as
- Natural mineral water which is derived from an underground formation from which water flows naturally to the surface of the earth at an identified location.
- Spring water shall be collected only at the spring or through a borehole tapping the underground formation feeding the spring.
- There shall be a natural force causing the water to flow to the surface through an orifice.
Spring Water shall conform to the standards for mineral water as specified in the table except for Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) content. “TDS of the product shall be not more than 750 mg/ liter”.
These standards for spring water are therefore proposed to be included as a form of natural mineral water in Food Safety and Standards Regulations, 2011. The standards specify that the spring water must be collected directly from a natural spring or a source feeding a spring where there is a natural force causing the water to flow to the surface.
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