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Drinking Water in Containers Regulations 1994

As Enacted Cited authorities 3 Cited in Amendments 16 Related
Vincent
JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
CitationSI 1994/743

1994 No. 743

FOOD

The Drinking Water in Containers Regulations 1994

Made 11th March 1994

Laid before Parliament 15th March 1994

Coming into force 1st April 1994

The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Secretary of State for Health, the Secretary of State for Wales, acting jointly, in relation to England and Wales, and the Secretary of State for Scotland in relation to Scotland, in exercise of the powers conferred on them by sections 6(4), 17(1), 26(1) and (3) and 48(1) of the Food Safety Act 19901, and of all other powers enabling them in that behalf, hereby make the following Regulations, after consultation in accordance with section 48(4) of the said Act with such organisations as appear to them to be representative of interests likely to be substantially affected by the Regulations:

S-1 Title and commencement

Title and commencement

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Drinking Water in Containers Regulations 1994 and shall come into force on 1st April 1994.

S-2 Interpretation

Interpretation

2.—(1) In these Regulations, except where the context otherwise requires—

“the Act” means the Food Safety Act 1990;

“bottle”, the noun, means a closed container of any kind in which water is sold for human consumption, and “bottle”, the verb, and cognate expressions, shall be construed accordingly;

“drinking water” means water intended for sale for human consumption in any bottle;

“parameter” means a property, element, organism or substance listed in the second column of the Tables in Part II of the Schedule to these Regulations;

“pesticides and related products” means any fungicide, herbicide or insecticide and polychlorinated biphenyls and terphenyls;

“prsecribed concentration or value”, in relation to any parameter, means the maximum concentration or value specified in relation to that parameter in the Tables in Part II of the Schedule to these Regulations as measured by reference to the unit of measurement so specifed;

“sell” includes possess for sale, or offer or expose or advertise for sale, and “sale” shall be construed accordingly.

S-3 Exemptions

Exemptions

3. These Regulations shall not apply to any drinking water which—

(a) is recognised as a natural mineral water under the Natural Mineral Waters Regulations 19852; or

(b) is a medicinal product within the meaning of the Medicines Act 19683in respect of which a product licence within the meaning of that Act is dor time being in force.

S-4 Bottling or sale of drinking water

Bottling or sale of drinking water

4.—(1) No person shall bottle or sell any drinking water unless it satisfies the requirements of the Schedule to these Regulations.

(2) The concentrations or values of the parameters listed in the Tables in Part II of the Schedule shall be read in conjunction with the notes thereto.

(3) The methods of analysis to be used for the purposes of these Regulations shall accord with the requirements of Article 12(5) of Council Directive 80/778/EECrelating to the quality of water intended for human consumption4.

(4) If any person contravenes paragraph (1) of this regulation he shall be guilty of an offence.

S-5 Defence in relation to exports

Defence in relation to exports

5. In any proceedings for an offence under regulation 4 of these Regulations it shall be a defence for the person charged to prove that the drinking water, in respect of which the offence is alleged to have been committed, was intended for export and complied with the importing country’s domestic legislation relevant to the alleged offence.

S-6 Penalties

Penalties

6. A peson guilty of an offence under these Regulations shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

S-7 Enforcemetn

Enforcemetn

7. Each food authority shall enforce and execute these Regulations within its area.

S-8 Application of various provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990

Application of various provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990

8.—(1) The following provisions of the Act shall apply for the purposes of these Regulations as they apply for the purposes of section 8, 14 or 15 of the Act and, unless the context otherwise requires, any reference in them to the Act shall be construed for the purposes of these Regulations as a reference to these Regulations—

(a)

(a) section 2 (extended meaning of “sale”, etc.);

(b)

(b) section 3 (presumptions that food is intended for human consumption);

(c)

(c) section 20 (offences due to fault of another person);

(d)

(d) section 21 (defence of due diligence);

(e)

(e) section 30(8) (which relates to documentary evidence);

(f)

(f) section 33 (obstruction etc. of officers);

(g)

(g) section 36 (offences by bodies corporate);

(h)

(h) section 44 (protection of officers acting in good faith).

(2) Section 8(3) (which makes presumptions in the case of batches, etc. of food) of the Act shall apply to drinking water which it is an offence to bottle or sell under these Regulations as it applies to food which fails to comply with food safety requirements.

(3) Section 9 (inspection and seizure of suspect food) of the Act shall apply to drinking water which it is an offence to bottle or sell under these Regulations as it applies to food which fails to comply with food safety requirements.

Gillian Shephard

Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

Cumberlege

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State,

Department of Health

1st March 1994

John Redwood

Secretary of State for Wales

11th March 1994

Hector Monro

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Scottish Office

2nd March 1994

THE SCHEDULE

Regulation 4(1)

REQUIREMENTS OF DRINKING WATER INCLUDING PRESCRIBED CONCENTRATIONS OR VALUES OF PARAMETERS

1 REQUIREMENTS OF DRINKING WATER

PART I:

REQUIREMENTS OF DRINKING WATER

Drinking water satisfies the requirements of this Schedule where—

SCH-1.1

1. the drinking water does not contain any property, element, organism or substance—

(a) (other than a parameter) at a concentration or value which would be injurious to health;

(b) (whether or not a parameter) at a concentration or value which in conjunction with any other property, element, organism or substance it contains (whether or not a parameter) would be injurious to health;

SCH-1.2

2. the drinking water does not contain—

(a) concentrations or values of any of the parameters listed in Tables A to D in Part II of this Schedule in excess of the prescribed concentrations or values;

(b) concentrations of trihalomethanes (being the aggregate of the concentrations of trichloromethane, dichlorobromomethane, dibromochloromethane and tribromomethane) in excess of 100 μg/l;

SCH-1.3

3. in the case of drinking water prepared from water which has been softened or desalinated, its hardness is not below a minimum concentration of 60 mg Ca/l and its alkalinity is not below a minimum concentration of 30 mg HCO3/l.

2 PRESCRIBED CONCENTRATIONS OR VALUES

PART II:

PRESCRIBED CONCENTRATIONS OR VALUES

TABLE A

Column 1

Column 2

Column 3

Column 4

Item

Parameters

Units of Measurement

Concentration or Value (maximum unless otherwise stated)

1.

Colour

mg/l Pt/Co scale

20

2.

Turbidity (including suspended solids)

Formazin turbidity units

4

3.

Odour (including hydrogen sulphide)

Dilution number

3 at 25°C

4.

Taste

Dilution number

3 at 25°C

5.

Temperature

°C

25

6.

Sulphate

mg SO4/l

250

7.

Magnesium

mg Mg/1

50

8.

Sodium

mg Na/l

150

9.

Potassium

mg K/1

12

10.

Dry residues

mg/l

1500(after drying at 180°C)

11.

Nitrate

mg NO3/l

50

12.

Nitrite

mg NO2/l

0.1

13.

Ammonium (ammonia and ammonium ions)

mg NH4/l

0.5

14.

Kjeldahl nitrogen

mg N/l

1

15.

Oxidizability (permanganate value)

mg O2/l

5

16.

Total organic carbon

mg C/l

No significant increase over that normally observed

17.

Dissolved or emulsified hydrocarbons (after extraction with petroleum ether); mineral oils

μg/l

10

18.

Phenols

μg C6H5OH/l

0.5

19.

Surfactants

μg/l (as lauryl sulphate)

200

20.

Aluminium

μg Al/l

200

21.

Iron

μg Fe/l

200

22.

Manganese

μg Mn/l

50

23.

Copper

μg Cu/l

3000

24.

Zinc

μg Zn/l

5000

25.

Phosphorus

μg P/l

2200

26.

Fluoride

μg F/l

1500

27.

Silver

μg Ag/l

101000

Note

(i) If silver is used in a water treatment process, 80 may be substituted for 10.

TABLE B

Column 1

Column 2

Column 3

Column 4

Item

Parameters

Units of Measurement

Maximum Concentration

1.

Arsenic

μg As/l

50

2.

Cadmium

μg Cd/l

5

3.

Cyanide

μg CN/l

50

4.

Chromium

μg Cr/l

50

5.

Mercury

μg Hg/l

1

6.

Nickel

μg Ni/l

50

7.

Lead

μg Pb/l

50

8.

Antimony

μg Sb/l

10

9.

Selenium

μg Se/l

10

10.

Pesticides and related products:

(a) individual substances

μg/l

0.1

(b) total substances1001

μg/l

0.5

11.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons1002

μg/l

0.2

Notes

(i) The sum of the detected concentrations of individual substances.

(ii) The sum of the detected concentrations of fluoranthene, benzo 3.4 fluoranthene, benzo 11.12 fluoranthene, benzo 3.4 pyrene, benzo 1.12 perylene and indeno (1,2,3—cd) pyrene.

TABLE C

Column 1

Column 2

Column 3

Column 4

Item

Parameters

Units of Measurement

Maximum Concentration

1.

Total coliforms

number/100 ml

0

2.

Faecal coliforms

number/100 ml

0

3.

Faecal streptococci

number/100 ml

0

4.

Sulphite-reducing clostridia

number/20 ml

≤11003

5.

Colony counts

number/1 ml at 22°C

1001004

number/1 ml at 37°C

201004

Note

(i) Analysis by multiple tube method.

(ii) The total viable colony count should be measured within 12 hours of bottling with the sample water being kept at a constant temperature during that 12-hour period. Any increase in the total viable colony count of the water between 12 hours after bottling and the time of sale shall not be greater than that normally expected.

TABLE D

Column 1

Column 2

Column 3

Column 4

Item

Parameters

Units of Measurement

Maximum Concentration or Value

1.

Conductivity

μS/cm

1500 at 20°C

2.

Chloride

mg Cl/l

400

3.

Calcium

mg Ca/l

250

4.

Substances extractable in chloroform

mg/l dry residue

1

5.

Boron

μg B/l

2000

6.

Barium

μg Ba/l

1000

7.

Benzo 3.4 pyrene

ng/l

10

8.

Tetrachloromethane

μg/l

3

9.

Trichloroeth...

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