CAC/RCP 48-2001 Code of Hygienic Practice for Bottled/Packaged Drinking Waters (Other than Natural Mineral Waters)
INTRODUCTION
International trade in bottled water has increased in recent years, both in quantity and diversity. Because of greater transport capacity, it is now possible to distribute bottled water not just as ship, rail, and road cargo but also as airfreight, the latter being used mainly in crisis situations due to the higher cost. By all these means of transport, a remedy for water shortages has become available when local water supply systems fail due to natural causes (such as droughts and earthquakes) or societal disasters (such as sieges or sabotage) and bottled water, both natural mineral water and diverse other sorts, has been brought in to meet such emergencies.
Aside from water shortages, real and perceived needs to improve health also have contributed to an escalating trade in bottled water. Increasingly it has been recognized that traditional suppliers of drinking water such as public and private waterworks may not always be able to guarantee the microbiological, chemical and physical safety of their product to the extent previously thought possible.
The contamination of water with viruses and parasitic protozoa is a serious concern to all consumers, particularly the immunocompromised. These pathogens are difficult to detect and bacterial indicators of their potential presence are not always reliable. Therefore it may be helpful to consumers to supply information regarding control measures the water has received. Protection of natural resources and such treatments as boiling, pasteurization, distillation, reverse osmosis filtration, absolute one micron or submicron filtration are some of the control measures used to guard against, inactivate or remove possible water contaminants such as oocysts of Cryptosporidium parvum, Cyclospora cayentanensis, and Toxoplasma gondii and cysts of other waterborne parasitic protozoa such as Giardia (lamblia) intestinalis, and Entamoeba histolytica.
It may be necessary that bottled drinking water products of particular chemical composition provide information concerning their proper consumption and/or have directions regarding whether or not they are suitable for infants and for the rehydration of infant formula.
