Recently fssai has marked Packaged Drinking Water as a "High-Risk" thing. Let's see the real meaning of this :-
- If you saw this on internet & media, just read it as another news.
- It's done after there has been removel of the "mandatory" tag by the BIS.
- Since there may be huge entrants in this category, it's here to retain the quality checks, nothing else.
- It's not at all a new step from govt towards improving health standards, as many of the news blogs, sites publicizing.
- Earlier the water was under compulsory certification from the BIS ( ISI mark ), which was much more stringent in quality monitoring compared to fssai. In fact, fssai themselves had made a directive to get an ISI license before applying for fssai.
- Though there were 2 licenses needed, there was a good division between them, BIS looked after the quality of water for safety towards consumption & fssai, used to check, the usage, commercialization, storefronts etc. It was a natural distinction between the 2 regulatories. Working not the best, however, were in-place.
- Now, since BIS is not compulsory, let's see how it affects the quality of bottled water.
Conclusion : There was no special "Annual Check" in BIS, as there were daily, weekly, monthly, 6-monthly & Yearly internal checks, with a built-in lab, which won't be there. In this place, there will be this "Annual Inspection" by the fssai. It's not any extra ordinary measure by the Govt.
