LAHORE: The Punjab Food Authority (PFA) on Saturday asked four popular brands of bottled water companies to stop production over their failure to meet food standards.

PFA Director General retired Capt Muhammad Usman said the teams had collected samples of 11 bottled water companies for laboratory test and of them, three failed on an analytical basis and one for labelling law violation.

He said that objective behind the lab test was to thoroughly examine the quality of water for which the PFA had collected water samples of Denali Water, Evian Natural Mineral Water, Karakorum (Flow Pure Drinking Water), Sufi Finest Drinking Water, Gourmet Bottled Drinking Water, Nestle Pure Life, Murree Sparkletts Premium Drinking Water, Aquafina Water, Doce Water, Dasani and Springley Natural Mineral Water.

According to lab test results, Evian Natural Mineral Water, Muree Sparkletts Premium Drinking, Dasani and Springley Natural Mineral Water failed due to various matters, including issues with labelling.

Mr Usman said the PFA has uploaded the results of lab tests on the authority website for the public interest.

He said the PFA would not allow any company to start their production until they did not meet the food standards as defined in the law. He said the PFA’s specialised water safety teams were working to ensure the provision of clean drinking water to the public.

He also revealed that the PFA would check the bottled water companies four times every year as per the annual water sampling schedule. The PFA chief claimed that the PFA was taking indiscriminate action against filtration plants in the light of laboratory reports.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2019