The Commissioner of Food Safety has issued an advisory to manufacturers of Packaged Drinking Water/Mineral Water to acquire the BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) Certification Mark.

Manufacturers of Packaged Drinking Water be it MSME or Large Scale are required to obtain License of BIS and is a pre-condition to upload the BIS Certificate while applying for FSSAI License/Registration, it stated.

The advisory stated, “Whereas, under Regulation 2.3.14 (17) and (18) of Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restriction on Sales) Regulations, 2011, states that “No person shall manufacture, sell or exhibit for sale, Packaged Drinking Water (PDW) and Mineral Water (MW) except under the Bureau of Indian Standards Certification Mark (BIS)”. Further, as per Section 31 of FSS Act, 2006, all Food Business Operators have to obtain License/Registration before commencement of any food business, it added.

Packaged Drinking water can be packed in bottles/Pet Jars including 20 Litre Jars.

Accordingly, the following procedure is laid down by FSSAI for considering the application for issuance of FSSAI License in case of manufacturers of PDW and MW;

1. FBO will have to mandatorily upload copy of BIS license or copy of letter indicating recording of application for BIS License at the time of applying for new license for PDW and MW from FSSAI on the online system of FoSCoS.
2. After obtaining BIS License, the FBO shall furnish its details in online Annual Return available in FoSCoS.
3. BIS license shall be mandatory document while applying for renewal of license.
4. In the event of closure of rejection of application for license by BIS, the FBO shall inform the concerned Licensing Authority and the FSSAI application/license is liable to be rejected/suspended/cancelled.

The Commission has cautioned that failure to comply will attract penalty under section 58 and 63 of Food Safety & Standards Act’ 2006.