Thiruvananthapuram: 20-litre water cans sans ISI tag to be banned

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Commissionerate of Food Safety (KCFS) has decided to ban 20-litre water cans being sold in the state without ISI certification. Recently, the food safety authorities had found unsafe bacteriology levels in some of the batches of bottled water being manufactured in the state.

A top official of food safety said that the decision to ban 20-litre water cans was taken in the wake of a court order.  There are around 9 licensed bottled water manufacturing units in Thiruvananthapuram district alone. 

"We found unsafe bottled drinking water in three of the total nine manufacturing units in Thiruvananthapuram.  Some of the batches of drinking water were unsafe for consumption. We have served notices and they have taken rectification measures," said the official.

All the manufacturing units are under scrutiny. "We are collecting samples on a regular basis. Our team visits these units every month and gets samples.

 So far everything is good.  We have a quick response team to address complaints relating to food safety," said the official.

However, he said that it was difficult to keep track of the distribution of bottled water coming from other states.

 "We are tightly monitoring manufacturing units in the state. Companies from other states also distribute water in Kerala which has only the central licence," said the food safety department official.