■ Tracking report of "bottom bottled water standard"
Beijing News (reporter Zheng Daosen and Liu Xiruo) The standard of bottled water is constantly fermenting. Yesterday, Xinjing Newspapers and Periodicals published a special report, "Investigation on the Disorder of Bottled Water Standards" (B03-B07 edition published on May 2), which pointed out that the detection indicators were quite different due to the numerous domestic standards on packaged drinking water. In this regard, the National Food Safety Risk Assessment Center said yesterday that the standard cleaning work is under way and is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
Investigating "how many standards"
It is reported that the National Food Safety Risk Assessment Center is entrusted by the Ministry of Health to manage various national standards related to food safety.
Yesterday, the relevant person in charge of the center contacted the Beijing News and clarified and explained some standard issues.
Wang Zhutian, assistant director and researcher of the center, said that the center will complete the integration of the current food standards by the end of 2015, and the packaged drinking water standards are also within the scope of cleaning. "Find out how many standards there are on food safety and whether there are contradictions between these standards, and hope to sort them out by the end of this year."
"If we can integrate, we will integrate, if not, we will standardize according to different requirements". Wang Zhutian said that the risk assessment center always formulates standards from the perspective of ensuring safety. According to the general principles of beverages, the packaged drinking water is classified into six categories, which is a quality requirement. No matter how many categories are divided, the safety standards should be the same from the perspective of microorganisms and pollutants.
At present, there are 4 national standards for packaged drinking water in China. In addition to the national standard, with the development of the industry, new "concepts" such as mineral water and mountain spring water are constantly emerging. Some enterprises begin to use enterprise standards for production, while some places have also issued local standards. There are some gaps and overlaps between different standards, resulting in regulatory problems.
The water source shall meet the tap water standard
As for the problem that the national standard of bottled water is "lower than" the national standard of tap water, Wang Zhutian said that the national standard of bottled water stipulates that raw water must meet the national standard of tap water, so there is no list of all tested items of tap water in the national standard of bottled water.
However, with the development of the drinking water industry, many bottled water such as natural water does not use tap water as the source of water. How to supervise this situation? Wang Zhutian said that no matter whether enterprises use tap water or not, their water sources should meet the national standards for tap water. As for whether the products produced by the enterprise can meet the national standards, the national quality supervision department is responsible for supervision.
■ Related news
Coca Cola and others refuse to disclose enterprise standards
Nestle said that the non disclosure of standards is an industry phenomenon, and it needs the association or competent department to promote the disclosure of enterprise standards
Yesterday, a reporter from the Beijing News called Coca Cola, Master Kang, Uni President and Nestle again to check their enterprise standards, which were rejected by the enterprises.
At present, about one-third of packaged aquatic products on the market use enterprise standards. According to relevant regulations, enterprise standards should comply with national standards, but because most enterprises do not disclose enterprise standards, the public has questions about the product standards of these enterprises.
Previously, Beijing News reporters continued to contact major bottled water enterprises and asked them to disclose their own production standards, which were rejected. In some enterprise standards learned by the reporter, some key indicators are missing.
For example, the mineral water enterprise standard of Coca Cola Yunnan Company (Q/KKK 0003 S-2009) lacks "total alpha radioactivity" and "total beta radioactivity" indicators. In addition, cadmium, an important toxicological indicator of bottled water, is also absent. It is understood that cadmium pollution incidents have occurred in many places in Yunnan in recent years.
With regard to the lack of heavy metal cadmium, total alpha radioactivity and total beta radioactivity indicators in the enterprise standards, the responsible person of Coca Cola Greater China PR said that he was on leave and could not respond.
Li Yilin, the representative of the Beijing office of Master Kong Holdings Limited, rejected the reporter's request for the disclosure of enterprise standards. She said that from the standpoint of the media, enterprise standards should be made public, but from the standpoint of enterprises, there are different understandings.
Uni President claimed that its drinking water standards were based on the national standards for bottled water and tap water, and the specific contents could not be disclosed.
Dong Yuguo, the vice president of Nestle Greater China Group Affairs, said that there are many company information in the enterprise standards, and the non disclosure of standards is an industry phenomenon. If only Nestle is open, it will cause passive or unnecessary misunderstanding in many aspects. To promote the disclosure of enterprise standards, industry associations or relevant competent departments need to come forward.
■ Q&A
Q1 Why are there only 21 bottled water standards?
In the Hygienic Standard for Barrel (Bottle) Drinking Water (GB 19298-2003), there are only 21 water quality indicators, far less than 106 items in the national standard for tap water (Hygienic Standard for Drinking Water GB 5749-2006). Toxicity indicators such as mercury and formaldehyde, as well as common water quality indicators such as pH value and hardness, are not included in the national standard for bottled water.
In response, Wang Zhutian said that the precondition of this standard is that the source water meets the standard of domestic drinking water (i.e. tap water). Therefore, it is unnecessary to list these items in the standard. "The raw materials of enterprises should be inspected, and can only be used after passing the inspection".
Q2 How to ensure the quality of bottled water?
In fact, many drinking water on the market is not made from tap water. The national standard only stipulates the source water, how can we ensure its implementation?
Wang Zhutian said, for example, if you want to use rice that meets the national standard for cooking, as long as you meet this standard, you don't need to care about the front. "Otherwise, the catering industry will bring you a bowl of rice and have to test more than 100 pesticides? Impossible."
He said that in addition to the possible pollution in the production and processing process, the standard does not require any more raw materials, otherwise there will be no end. If the final product tests all the previous products, it will not only fail to protect food safety, but also waste resources.
Is the detection method of Q3 coliform outdated?
In the national standard of bottled water, the coliform index is MPN/100ml ≤ 3, while in the national standard of tap water, it is required not to be detected. Experts from the Institute for Disease Control and Environment of the People's Republic of China told the Beijing News that the detection method in the national standard for bottled water was in accordance with the old Soviet standards. After WHO updated the detection method, the standard for tap water was updated, while the standard for bottled water was not updated.
Wang Zhutian responded that he was not an expert in microbiology, but he could tell the reporter that the attributes of the technical content of these two methods are the same, "both means the same". As for the specific reasons, he said that if reporters want to know, they need to find experts who drafted.
Q4 Why are PH limits different in different standards?
In the national standard of tap water, the specified range of PH value is 6.5 to 8.5; In the national standard for purified water, the value range is 5.0 to 7.0; The national standard for bottled water does not cover the PH value. Why is there such inconsistency between standards?
Wang Zhutian said that his National Food Safety Risk Assessment Center is only responsible for the safety standards, and the quality standards are under the jurisdiction of the National Standardization Administration Committee. Among the four national standards for packaged water, the center is responsible for the management of those with the word "sanitation" in the title.
"For example, we are responsible for the safety standards of rice, but rice must be classified into one, two, three, and four grades, which are under the management of relevant departments." Wang Zhutian said, but because of historical reasons, the national standard for mineral water should have been the quality standard, but it also stipulated the health indicators.
Q5 Is it enough to detect heavy metals once every six months?
At present, arsenic, lead, bromate and other heavy metal indicators that should be strictly restricted in the enterprise standards are only used as "type testing", which should be tested once every six months, or only after changing the formula and equipment. Is the detection frequency too low?
Wang Zhutian said that the standards formulated by the center are all safety standards, which never stipulate the content of factory inspection. Some quality standards in the past did stipulate the rules of factory inspection, but those standards were issued by other departments.
