For the first time all producers of bottled water for sale to the public through restaurants, hotels or retail stores are being officially regulated and monitored by the Department of Health. Legislation to this effect came into effect at the end of July.
Until then, bottled water in South Africa had been regulated according to the general safety and quality criteria governing the production of food. After representations and recommendations from the South African Natural Bottled Water Association (SANBWA) and in line with international trends, the Department of Health drew up new legislation for the bottled water industry.
The legislation is based on the Codex Alimentarius which was created in 1963 by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to develop food standards and production guidelines to protect the health of consumers, ensure fair trade practices in the food sector, and promote co-ordination of all food standards work undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organisations.
As per the Codex, South Africa`s new bottled water legislation defines three classes of water that, if correctly bottled, will be safe, healthy and pleasant tasting for the public.
NATURAL WATER
The first is "natural water" - water sourced from an underground aquifer and bottled at source. The emphasis here is on "natural" and so no treatment of the water is allowed. The composition of the bottled water is therefore identical to that of the source water. Natural mineral water and natural spring water fall into this class.
WATERS DEFINED BY ORIGIN
The second class is "waters defined by origin" - including rain, glacier, mist and spring water. As a general rule these do require anti-microbial treatments, but no treatments are allowed that would alter the chemical composition of the water.
PREPARED WATER
The third class is "prepared water" - including municipal, surface or ground water that has been purified by treatments that change the chemical composition of the water. In the case of municipal water, for instance, previously added chemicals such as fluoride are removed and minerals are added.
South Africa`s new bottled water legislation stipulates what sources of water are acceptable, what types of treatment are required, the maximum levels of certain substances and what information bottlers must display on their labels.
John Weaver, chairman of SANBWA and a consulting hydro-geologist, welcomed the new legislation, saying that it would help to build the rapidly-growing local bottled water industry by giving producers complying with the legislation more credibility with consumers.
SANBWA has for many years applied stringent, internationally-accepted criteria to the establishment, maintenance and monitoring of its members` bottling plants and was instrumental in getting the new legislation drawn up.
"Bottlers who weren`t SANBWA members and did occasionally produce inferior products were a threat to the industry as a whole but, from a legal point of view, there was nothing we could do to either eliminate them or upgrade their operations to the correct standards.
"Also, barriers to entry to the industry are fairly low. Any farmer with access to an aquifer, for instance, could bottle and sell the water. And you don`t need a huge investment in equipment if you`re not going to focus on quality and standards. But, in that case, you`re going to spoil the market and go out of business quite quickly yourself.
"What the new legislation does is ensure that new entrants to the market start up under optimal conditions and are, therefore, sustainable in the long term. That`s good not only for the bottled water industry but for the economy as a whole."
All SANBWA member products are obliged to carry the SANBWA logo on their bottles. The logo acts as a seal of quality. Since the new bottled water legislation was passed last year, SANBWA has, as a service to the industry, assisted many non-members to comply. It has sampled 70 bottles from the trade, evaluated them against the regulations, and informed individual bottlers about what they needed to change in order to become compliant.
It has also been working closely with many bottlers in re-designing labels and advising them on aligning their process requirements with the new legislation.
Restaurateurs and consumers need to bear in mind that it may be a few months before bottlers are able to get their newly labelled stock into the trade and onto shelves.
ACTION PLAN
The South African National Bottled Water Association environmental working group tasked with establishing a practical action plan for reducing the industry`s environmental impact, met for the first time in August.
Sanbwa chairman John Weaver says the main area for addressing the environmental impact of the bottled water industry, is increasing the recycling of plastic bottles used by the industry and thereby reducing the manufacture of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) used in the production of the bottles. PET is 100% recyclable.
Initially representative only of producers of natural mineral water and known since 1997 as the South African Natural Bottled Water Association, Sanbwa now represents the producers of 90% of all bottled water sold in South Africa.
In 2006, sales of bottled water increased by 34% to 290-million litres. "That represents millions of bottles a year that should be recycled," Weaver says.
"At the moment, according to PETco, South Africa`s PET recycling organisation, only 18.5% of all PET is recycled - including packaging for things other than water. While that means that more PET is being recycled than glass, there`s a lot of room for improvement and it`s involvement of the public that`s going to make the difference. Our working group will focus on ways to encourage the public to recycle."
Sanbwa has been involved in recycling of glass bottles for many years.
The four members of the Sanbwa environmental working group are Casper Durandt of Coca-Cola South Africa who is one of the founder members and vice-chairman of PETco; Charlotte Metcalf, Sanbwa`s technical director; Marc de Bruin, operations manager for Nestlé Water; and Leslee Durr from Durr Bottling. |
