Bottled water quality: Difficult to control!

(Baonghean) - Bottled and jarred drinking water is widely used by people because of its convenience and low price. However, the quality of this product is a big question mark when regulations on production and business conditions have not been fully implemented by production facilities.

Loi Phat Production Trading & Service Co., Ltd. produces bottled drinking water under the Truong Son brand located in an alley on Bui Duong Lich Street, Quan Bau Ward, Vinh City. This is also where the family of Mr. Phan Cong Truong, the company's Director, lives. The entire area of ​​more than 70 square meters is littered with water bottles of all brands on the floor. Some people wash the bottles, some label them, some pour the water..., no one is equipped with protective gear. Receiving us, Mr. Truong said that every day, the company sells about 150 bottles of water to the market, on hot summer days, the consumption increases to 350 bottles. Each bottle of water sold costs 8,000 VND.

According to Mr. Truong, the water source used is tap water with a modern production line system, costing nearly 300 million VND. Taking us on a tour of the water treatment line system, Mr. Truong introduced the bottled drinking water production process as follows: Tap water is pumped into the tank, then pumped up to be filtered through 3 columns: activated carbon, ion, quartz. After that, the water continues to be filtered through the RO membrane and finally sterilized by ultraviolet rays before being bottled. Mr. Truong affirmed that the water quality is guaranteed as advertised by the company. When we questioned why the process of bottling water into bottles was not done in a sterile filling room but workers pumped water into bottles by hand? He explained: "Because the room was too hot, plus I was afraid to carry it, so I went outside to cool it down."

The cleaning process of water tanks at Truong Son water production facility is not in accordance with regulations (Photo taken at 1:20 p.m., August 27, 2014).

At Hang Hieu bottled water production facility (Hamlet 7, Nghi An Commune, Vinh City), although the area is only about 50 square meters, it is arranged more neatly and cleanly. Mr. Nguyen Van Hieu - owner of Hang Hieu facility said: The water treatment stages are carried out according to the correct process. First, groundwater is pumped up to the tank to settle through gravel, coal, and sand. Then, the water is pumped into the line for rough filtration through 3 filter tanks: quartz, activated carbon, and ion to remove heavy metals. The water is further filtered through the RO membrane and finally disinfected with ultraviolet rays (UV). “My water production facility mainly serves people in the commune and neighboring communes, with a price of 8,000 VND/bottle. On average, the facility consumes more than 300 bottles per day, with peaks reaching 500-700 bottles. To ensure customers' trust and peace of mind, the facility periodically checks water quality every 6 months and strictly complies with regulations of the authorities,” said Mr. Hieu. However, in reality, workers do not have protective clothing; all stages of cleaning bottles, filling water and labeling are done by hand; the old reused bottle system is cleaned with soap without being disinfected or preserved to avoid the effects of harmful bacteria.

Currently, on the market, there are a series of establishments producing purified water or mineral water, with names and labels similar to famous and reputable water brands on the market such as Vita, Xpro, ANILIM, KiWi, Vistar, Aquavita, Anova... This makes it easy for consumers to confuse and misunderstand. Because they understand consumer psychology, bottled water production establishments often have very low prices compared to famous and reputable water brands. Customers often believe in advertising, cheap prices... without needing to learn about the origin, source as well as production technology or product features. Some consumers cannot even distinguish the difference between mineral water and purified water.

According to regulations, the process of producing bottled water to ensure quality must go through the following steps: Raw water is filtered through activated carbon to deodorize, then ion exchange to remove minerals, reverse filtration to remove microorganisms. And through the bottling system must be a sterile environment, with ultraviolet rays to fight microorganisms. If the above processes are followed correctly, the bottled water reaching consumers cannot cost 8,000 VND/20 liter bottle?

More than 100 bottled water production facilities in the province, except for some large enterprises with industrial production, most of the bottled water production facilities use indoor space for production. The floors are full of water, not cleaned regularly, empty bottles of all brands are thrown everywhere. Workers are not equipped with protective clothing and most of the steps from cleaning bottles, filling... are done by hand with countless germs that cannot be seen with the naked eye.

In particular, most of these production facilities reuse old bottles, while the rinsing, washing and preservation of the bottle shells are not done properly. Many places do not mix disinfectant chemicals but only wash with soap, the faucet is not cleaned and is covered with dust and dirt. Meanwhile, the bottle shells and bottle caps should have been disinfected and sterilized many times. Mr. Dao Trong Dung - Head of the Food Safety and Hygiene Department (FSH) said that the unsanitary situation at bottled and canned drinking water production facilities in the area is real. Specifically, during inspections, the FHS has discovered many establishments violating production and business conditions. The most common violations are hygiene issues at the factory and production process. All violating establishments have been recorded and required to correct their violations, but many continue to violate them in the next inspection.

Every year, the inspectors of the Food Safety Department coordinate with other functional agencies to inspect bottled water production facilities. However, due to the large number of facilities spread throughout the province, the team can only inspect a few production facilities, the rest must be... assigned to district-level health centers! Therefore, for facilities that illegally or secretly bottle water at home, it is very difficult for the functional agencies to detect and handle. On the other hand, the inspections only focus on the beginning of the year or the month of launching food safety and hygiene, each inspection is notified in advance to the production facility so the facility has plenty of time to "clean up" existing problems. It is worth mentioning that purified water products on the market today are produced without clear batches, so when there are "problems", it is even more difficult to control and handle. Not only that, this item is not currently on the regular inspection list of the Department of Standards, Quality and Measurement, so how to label the goods to announce the quality to consumers depends on... the manufacturer. Therefore, there is no basis to ensure the quality of water is the same as what is stated on the label?

Nguyen Hung