Consumers need to be alert when using bottled water products.

(Baonghean) - The bottled water market is growing rapidly with a series of small, household-based establishments using outdated technology that do not ensure food safety. Right now, it is necessary to "separate the bad from the good", ensuring the healthy development of bottled water production and trading activities, and above all, consumers need to be alert to protect their health.

Be a smart consumer

Consumers today still do not really understand and distinguish the difference between purified water and mineral water. In addition, the psychology of preferring cheap products is still popular. Almost all customers, even agencies and organizations, when ordering water only care about the label and price of the product.

Understanding this psychology, small water production facilities have come up with similar names to reputable products such as: ViTa, Xpro, ANILIM, KiWi, Vistar, Aquavita, confusing consumers. Moreover, on the product label, there are also printed advertising lines such as: produced on fully automatic equipment, ultra-filtration, sterilized by ultraviolet rays... From there, many facilities still deceive countless "gods" to spend money to consume their products.

The product packaging process at An Hai Production and Trading Company Limited is done by hand and right on the floor.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong, Block 12, Ben Thuy Ward said: For a long time, I have chosen to buy cheap water products, close to home and with full labels, but have not paid much attention to quality. Moreover, every facility commits that their products have been sterilized and produced on modern equipment lines. Meanwhile, how can we, the people, evaluate and check whether the products we are using are of good quality or not?

The lack of information, lack of interest from the people, combined with the loose management of the authorities, have made the bottled water market complicated. Currently, the movement of producing bottled water is spreading everywhere. Due to greed, many establishments have ignored the regulations, willing to produce bottles of water filled with toxic bacteria to sell to the people.

Water samples of Tuan Tu Production and Trading Service Joint Stock Company are not of good quality.

Before waiting for the business ethics of these establishments to change, people must truly be smart consumers. When using bottled water, they should choose products from establishments that announce product quality, clear and trustworthy brands. When buying, they should carefully check the product name, water source, production facility, water composition, main quality indicators, production date, expiration date, production address, product standard announcement number... and regularly follow and update information on newspapers and radio to choose safe food.

Eliminate unqualified facilities

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Hung, Director of An Phu Pure Water and Ice Factory, the licensing of bottled water production facilities is still very chaotic. Of the more than 90 drinking water production facilities in the province, only about 5% are operating seriously, that is, investing in modern equipment and technology, truly caring about water quality, and caring about the health of consumers before launching them on the market.

Many facilities are using filtration equipment lines that cost only a few tens of millions of dong.

“You only need to spend about 50-70 million VND to buy a water production line with full UV sterilization, RO reverse osmosis... However, to have a product with pure water that ensures food safety, you need a modern equipment line system. This technology costs from several hundred million to billions of VND, quite expensive. And in the province, there are only a handful of facilities like this,” said Mr. Hung.

For these establishments, a 20-liter bottle of water cannot be sold for less than 10 thousand. When it reaches consumers, it has been raised to about 20 thousand. However, there are still many water brands on the market that sell for only 5-7 thousand/bottle, but when it reaches consumers, it costs about 12-15 thousand/bottle.

Extraction room and finished product room of Thanh Thao Trading Company Limited are used as storage rooms for bottles.

Mr. Pham Duy Chung, Director of Hong Vinh Joint Stock Company said: My facility produces drinking water from tap water, the market price is 10 thousand/bottle. However, because there are many facilities selling at lower prices, while consumers only buy cheap products without paying much attention to water quality, my facility cannot compete. Therefore, I was forced to close the company.

Faced with the above situation, in the coming time, the Department of Health needs to strengthen inspection, examination and supervision of compliance with food safety regulations in the production and trading of bottled drinking water. In particular, it is necessary to require enterprises producing and trading bottled purified drinking water in the province to commit to strictly and voluntarily comply with the provisions of the law in production and trading... When violations are detected, strict handling measures must be taken to avoid the situation of being lenient, perfunctory and formal.

Bottle rinsing at many manufacturing facilities is not performed properly.

Through the above incident, the Provincial People's Committee needs to direct the People's Committees at all levels and functional agencies to strictly comply with the management regulations of the law on food safety. For establishments producing and trading bottled drinking water that have not been granted a Certificate of eligibility for food hygiene and safety; and have not announced quality standards, they need to be eliminated.

More than ever, the bottled water market needs to be "cleared" soon, ensuring healthy market development and consumer health.

Pham Bang