With less than a fortnight to go before the mandatory Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) quality certification comes into effect in the packaged water industry, all the major players including Ramesh Chauhan's Bisleri, Coca-Coal's Kinley, Pepsi's Aquafina, Nestle's Pure Life and Prakash Chauhan's Bailley have procured the ISI mark.
According to the latest data, 229 franchisees of all the major packaged water companies all over the country have obtained the BIS certification. However, in the natural mineral water category, only three brands -- Himalyan, Catch and Life Spring -- have obtained the mandatory ISI certification.
About 14 manufacturing facilities of Coca-Cola, 15 of Bisleri and 5 of Pepsi have obtained the ISI certification.
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BIS has recently reduced the testing fee from Rs 1.49 lakh to Rs 96,000 for the large manufacturers, while small manufacturers will continue to be charged Rs 84,000. "We are charging about 2 paise per litre as testing charge which is lowest in the industry," a BIS spokesman said.
As per the agreement with the manufacturers, BIS would test samples four times a year. The water would be tested on various criteria such as microbilogical impurities, toxic content and presence of radioactive element. All the eight BIS labs have been assigned the task of testing water.
The Union ministry of health and family welfare in its notification last year had set March 29 this year as the deadline for mandatory labeling of all the packaged water. However, it was extended later to September 29 after many bottled water manufacturers requested the ministry to extend the deadline in view of their inability to withdraw non-ISI marked water from the market.
The notification would also be applicable to the imported bottled water brands like Evian and Perrier.
The notification issued by the ministry on September 29 last year, was an amendment to the Prevention of Food Adulteration Rules 1955 which also prohibits the companies from making claims on the water's medicinal benefits.
The notification defines 'Packaged mineral water' as water derived from any source of potable water which is subjected to treatment such a filtration, activated carbon filtration, demineralisation and reverse osmosis.
Currently, there are about 300-odd producers of bottled water in the country including Bisleri, Kinley and Aquafina in the industry. According to industry sources, the Rs 1000 crore industry has been growing at around 40 per cent annually.
"After the coming in of BIS standard, all the small players may have to close their shops," an industry expert said.