Dangerous bottled water

Food safety authority's puzzling regulations

Strange are the ways of the country's food quality regulator, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). After the inept handling of the controversies involving a ban on Nestle India's Maggi noodles and the issue of product approvals, it is now displaying similar inconsistencies on the presence of potentially hazardous potassium bromate in bakery products and drinking water. Reacting to the detection of bromate in many samples of bread by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), the FSSAI hastened - and rightly so - to indicate that it would ban the use of this chemical as an additive in breads and other bakery products. But, at the same time, it sought to defend its earlier proposition to permit limited amounts of bromate in packaged drinking water. It, obviously, disregarded the fact that bottled drinking water is consumed in substantial quantities and that the presence of even a small amount of this toxin can be potentially highly hazardous.

The FSSAI has since sought to mitigate the damage by saying this proposal was meant only to seek stakeholders' feedback and that it might revisit it now. But its credibility has been dented further. The FSSAI could not have been unaware of the findings of a 1999 study by the International Agency for Research on Cancer which had revealed that potassium bromate could be a possible human carcinogen. Some other laboratory studies on animals exposed to this toxin have also concluded that ingestion of this chemical resulted in a significant increase in the incidence of cancer of kidneys, thyroid and other organs.

Interestingly, the FSSAI's other explanation is that the proposal to allow bromate (up to 10 microgram per litre of drinking water) was based on "ground realities" that this contaminant might, in any case, be found in water in some cases. This contention, too, seems untenable, especially because similar arguments can be offered to justify the presence of various other kinds of contaminants in commonly consumed Indian foods. It is true that when ozone is used as a reagent to disinfect water, some amount of bromate tends to develop. But ozone is no longer the only disinfecting agent available now. Commercial houses which process and package water for discerning and quality-conscious consumers can surely afford to use less hazardous, even if more expensive, methods to decontaminate water.

The World Health Organization's stipulation on the quality of drinking water is quite clear - toxic contaminants should ideally not be present in it at all. The Codex Alimentarius, which has laid down globally accepted food quality standards - many of which are followed by the FSSAI - is also unambiguous on this issue. It states: "All treatment of water intended for bottling should be carried out under controlled conditions to avoid any type of contamination, including the formation of toxic products (particularly bromates)." This is a proviso that merits attention of all stakeholders, particularly the FSSAI.