Natural mineral water: how to produce and label in England
How bottled water producers can get a natural mineral water recognised in England, and rules you need to follow to produce and label it.
Official website: gov.uk00
How to use the service
It can take up to 2 years to get a natural mineral water recognised. You should only produce your natural mineral water in bottles or containers after you’ve been granted recognition. Follow these steps to get recognition. Contact the Environment Agency to apply for a water abstraction licence . You’ll need this before you can take water from the spring. Get in touch with the local authority in the area the water is extracted from. Ask for an environmental health officer ( EHO ) within the hygiene team and explain what you want to do. They’ll help you follow the rules to get your water recognised. Find out what evidence you need to gather . You may need to use a hydro-geological consultant to gather this evidence. Understand how you’ll be allowed to exploit the spring . You need to know this to make sure your natural mineral water is viable to produce. Find out what treatments you can use . You need to know this to make sure your natural mineral water is viable to produce. Check the rules to follow when labelling . If you want to claim your water has therapeutic qualities, you’ll need to follow extra rules. When you’ve produced all the evidence to show that your water meets the conditions for recognition, send your application to your EHO in the local authority. If the local authority grants recognition, they’ll put this in writing to you. If your business is not yet registered as a food business with the local authority, you must do this now. If the local authority refuses to grant recognition, you can appeal to Defra .
Requirements
Check with the local authority: what evidence they need from you in what format you should provide the evidence You’ll usually need to produce the following documents, gathering data over 2 years: geological and hydrological surveys physical, chemical and physio-chemical surveys a report on what chemicals are naturally present in the water at source a report on what chemicals are artificially present in the water at source a report to show the water is free of parasites and bacteria a list of any treatments you plan to use You may need to use a hydrogeological consultant to produce these documents. You should check that the laboratory testing your water has received third party accreditation for carrying out the method of testing that you have requested. When you’ve got all this data, you should be able to prove that the mineral, chemical and microbial levels in your water remain stable. This means these levels do not change more than 20% from when the water was first tested.
Official source
Natural mineral water: how to produce and label in England
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