How safe is your bottled drinking water? A sample survey by Karnataka’s Department of Food Safety found that at least 71% of local brands of bottled water were unfit for human consumption.
A special campaign by the Food Safety and Drug Administration Department in February this year collected 296 samples of bottled drinking water for testing. Out of the 255 samples that were analysed, only 72 samples were reported as “safe”, 95 as “unsafe” and 88 as “poor quality”.
“Two-thirds of the bottled water samples tested by us were either of poor quality or totally unsafe for human consumption. The chemical analysis of the samples revealed that they had harmful chemicals and bacteria, pesticide residue and mineral content beyond permissible levels,” state health minister Dinesh Gundu Rao, during a press meet held in Bengaluru.
The Department of Food Safety picked up the samples from across 37 districts and found that nearly 99% of these samples were of local brands.
“We will draw legal samples and do the testing for all the brands and initiate action against the manufacturers if the samples are found to be unsafe and of substandard quality,” said Rao, urging the people to be aware of what they consume and to buy only safe and branded bottle water.
The safety standards of bottled drinking water are a cause of concern especially after the mandatory BIS certification was removed in October 2024, following the industry’s demand. Subsequently, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) placed packaged drinking water and mineral water under the “high-risk food” category last December, calling for stringent inspection and testing.
Ideally, the Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) should be 50-150 mg/L, to be considered good in taste and for health. If TDS is 150-500 mg/L, it is safe but not very tasty. TDS above 500 mg/L is considered unsafe as it contains excessive salts or contaminants.
Bottled water is unsafe when it contains microplastics or chemical residues like pesticides, fluoride, and other chemicals, or is found to have microbial contamination (Bacteria, viruses, and parasites). This calls for regular testing to check TDS levels and microbial contaminants in bottled water.
