FSSAI categorises packaged drinking water as high-risk food

Packaged drinking water and mineral water will now be considered a ‘high-risk food category’ by India’s food quality regulator, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The inclusion of bottled water under this category became necessary after the authority decided to relax mandatory Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) certification for the product.

In an Order issued on November 29, FSSAI stated that the manufacturers and processors of packaged drinking water and mineral water will now be subjected to annual regulatory inspections before granting manufacturing or bottling licences or registrations.

FSSAI also categorises dairy products and analogues, meat and meat products including poultry, fish and fish products including molluscs, crustaceans etc., eggs and egg products, food items intended for particular nutritional uses, prepared foods, Indian sweet and fortified rice kernels under the high-risk food category.

According to the rule, all centrally licensed manufacturers under high-risk food categories must get their business audited by an FSSAI-recognised third-party food safety auditing agency every year. Similarly, third-party auditing of manufacturers/processors of high-risk food categories with state government licenses can be mandated by state food safety commissioners. FSSAI’s Regulatory Compliance Division has prepared a suggestive inspection plan for the state authorities to bring in some uniformity in the frequency of inspections and the nature of inspections carried out by different state-level regulators. The types of inspections thus include pre-license, pre-registration, routine, follow-up inspections, inspection before renewal or modification of the license, inspection based on complaints, inspection in the case of report of major non-conformity during third-party audits, inspection of expired licences etc.

An FSSAI advisory issued some two years ago clarified that inspections are meant to be undertaken to bring about systematic improvements rather than in the form of raids or searches. It also stated that inspections have to be carried out using Food safety compliance through the regular inspection & sampling system ((FoSCoRIS) developed by FSSAI. The central body also permits e-inspection that can be carried out by recording the observations, using videos or images submitted by the business operator.