Bottled water: Many products violate quality standards

(Baonghean.vn) - 21 water samples from 21 establishments producing bottled drinking water and mineral water were tested and found to not meet quality standards but were still sold to consumers. This is an alarming reality about the quality of bottled water in the province today...

Convenient and cheap

Bottled water and mineral water are increasingly used due to their convenience and partly because of their low price. With a 20-liter bottle, many water production facilities sell it on the market for only 8,000 VND, or even 6,000 - 7,000 VND. Just sit at home and make a call, 5 minutes later you will have drinking water, faster than boiling an electric kettle. It is so convenient and cheap, so the issue of quality needs to be raised.

It is known that the water source used by the facilities as raw materials for production and sold on the market is only tap water and well water. At Loi Phat Production Trading and Service Co., Ltd., Mr. Phan Cong Truong, the company's director, said that the water source used is tap water treated through a modern production line, costing nearly 300 million VND, so the quality is guaranteed. Observing Mr. Truong's facility, we saw that the entire floor was littered with water bottles of all brands; some workers were washing bottles, some labeling bottles, some filling water... no one was equipped with protective gear. When we asked why the process of filling water into bottles was not done in a sterile filling room but workers pumped water into bottles by hand? Mr. Truong explained: "Because the room was too hot, plus I was afraid of carrying it, so I went outside to cool off." It is known that every day, his company sells about 150 bottles of water to the market, on hot summer days, the consumption increases to 350 bottles.

The bottle washing process at Hang Hieu bottled water production facility does not ensure quality.

Hang Hieu bottled water production facility (Nghi An commune, Vinh city), although the area is only about 50m2, is quite tidy. Mr. Nguyen Van Hieu, the owner of the facility, did not hesitate to say that the water used is well water, and affirmed: The water treatment stages are carried out according to the correct procedure. First, underground water is pumped up to the tank to settle through gravel, coal, and sand. Then, the water is pumped into the chain for rough filtration through 3 filters: 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 the water quality every 6 months and strictly complies with the regulations of the authorities,” said Mr. Hieu. However, the workers here do not have protective clothing, all stages of cleaning the bottles, filling water and labeling are done by hand; the system of old bottles that are reused is cleaned with soap without being disinfected or preserved to avoid the effects of harmful bacteria...

Handcrafted production

There are currently 90 establishments producing bottled drinking water and mineral water in the province. Most of the establishments are small-scale and spontaneous, with each establishment selling an average of 300-400 20-liter bottles to the market each month. In addition, some establishments also bottle 350 ml and 1.5 liter bottles. Except for some large enterprises with industrial production, most of the establishments producing bottled water use the space in their houses as production areas, which are not cleaned regularly, and empty bottles of all brands are scattered everywhere. Workers are not provided with protective clothing and almost all stages from cleaning bottles, filling... are done by hand.

The bottled water production process at Loi Phat Production, Trading and Service Co., Ltd. does not ensure hygiene.

Most of these production facilities reuse old bottles, while the cleaning, washing, and preservation of the bottle shells are not done properly. Many places do not mix chemicals to disinfect the bottles but only wash them with soap; then the water tap is not cleaned, causing dust and dirt. Meanwhile, the bottle shells and lids should have been disinfected and sterilized many times. Mr. Dao Trong Dung - Head of the Food Safety and Hygiene Department admitted that the unsanitary situation at bottled and canned drinking water production facilities in the province is common. Specifically, during inspections, the Food Safety and Hygiene Department discovered many establishments violating production and business conditions. The most common violations are hygiene issues at the production workshop and production process.

Using fake test coupons containing harmful bacteria

The inspection team took water samples for testing.

Recently, the provincial interdisciplinary inspection team, in accordance with Decision No. 2880/QD-UBND, inspected 41 bottled water production facilities in the province. The team took water samples from 37 facilities for testing at the Institute of Food Safety and Hygiene (Ministry of Health) and the results showed that 21 water samples from 21 facilities did not meet quality standards. In addition, the inspection team also discovered that 37 bottled water production facilities used fake test results.

According to Mr. Nguyen Manh Ha - Chief Inspector of the Department of Science and Technology (Head of the inspection team): bottled drinking water is a product in group 2. According to regulations, water producers must declare conformity according to the National Technical Regulation: QCVN 6-1: 2010/BYT issued by the Ministry of Health in 2010. To be certified as conforming, producers must test samples to check the conformity of the product with the declared standards applying the corresponding technical regulations. Specifically, bottled water products must be tested and must meet 26 criteria according to technical standards. Thus, the use of fake quality test results by bottled drinking water production facilities means that the bottled water products of these facilities have not been tested but are still released to the market for sale to consumers. And so, for a long time, people have been drinking water that does not meet quality standards without knowing it.

Interdisciplinary inspection team inspects bottled water production facilities in the province

It is known that the interdisciplinary inspection team's selection of bottled drinking water and mineral water for inspection is not random. Also according to Mr. Nguyen Manh Ha - Chief Inspector of the Department of Science and Technology (Head of the inspection team): Before deciding on the items to be inspected, the team conducted a survey and recorded the opinions of consumers. Thereby, it can be seen that the current water quality is still unclear and shows signs of not being guaranteed. And it can be said that the fact that the interdisciplinary inspection team of the province discovered 21 water samples from 21 production and business establishments that did not meet quality standards is an alarming number. However, that is only the surface number because the inspection team only took water samples from 37/41 establishments during the inspection. Meanwhile, as mentioned, according to incomplete statistics, there are more than 90 establishments producing and trading bottled drinking water in the province. If the team took samples from all these establishments for testing, the number could be even higher.

Another question is, what is the responsibility of the relevant authorities for the above incident? And how can consumers recognize water of guaranteed quality?...

Nghe An Newspaper will continue to inform readers.

Pham Bang