Licenses of 30 Bottled Drinking water manufacturing companies of Bottled Drinking water have been canceled for not conforming to the prescribed standards and criterions in last one year. Well placed sources at Pakistan Standard Quality & Control Authority (PSQCA) told ‘ONLINE’ on Friday that it had the mandate to monitor the quality of Bottled Drinking Water & Natural Mineral Water. PSQCA held inspected of the quality of bottled water manufactured by different companies and found water manufactured by several companies as substandard and consequently it cancelled licenses of 30 companies. Sources said that it also rejected applications filed by five companies for grant of licenses on the basis of findings of checking of samples submitted by the applicants.
Moreover, sources revealed that PSQCA filed three cases in different courts of law against the un-registered Companies without having valid Certification Marks (C.M) license of Bottled Drinking Water in the year 2011-12.
It is pertinent to note here that the Certification Marks (C.M) Licence are issued to manufacturers of Bottled Drinking Water as per Pakistan Conformity Assessment Rules 2011 complying to relevant Pakistan Standards Specification for Bottled Drinking Water by PSQCA, the procedure adopted to check the quality of the Mineral Water / Bottled Drinking Water companies as per Pakistan Conformity Assessment Rules 2011 is as under:
The Authority deputes inspectors with adequate technical qualification, experienced and knowledge in the field to conduct an inspection for grant, renewal or surveillance with regard to conformity of an article or process with the Pakistan Standard Specifications. The inspections are conducted under procedure of Pakistan Conformity Assessment Rules 2011 Section-24 on quarterly & surprise visit basis to evidence that the company has complete infrastructure and skilled manpower to produce quality bottled drinking water as per relevant Pakistan Standard Specifications. Three Random samples are collected from the unit and are sealed. The sample No. 1 is sent for testing to Quality Control Centre, (PSQCA/Independent lab.), the second is retained in unit and the third is kept in SDC/PSQCA for transparency of the product. During the inspection, Field officer also tests the samples in unit laboratory as per relevant Pakistan Standard. If the sample fails as per Pakistan Standard, the units are asked to stop the production till the removal of defects so re-sampling can be done. Upon receipt of test report from independent lab and after analysis, if it conforming otherwise non-conformance report for corrective action are issued to the company. The Director (CA) office re-examines the case is and if found compliant to Pakistan Standards Specification for Bottled Drinking Water/Mineral Water the unit is informed for conformity of the product.
Let this be a lesson to all shady bottled water companies that don't really filter their water. You'll eventually be caught so it's best to shape up.
Yes, that's sad to hear and it should definitely serve as a lesson to those companies. As a mother, I always put safety first that's why I always buy bottled water, but with issues like this, we parents can't help but worry.
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