Yardstick of Authenticity- “Standards” in the Packaged Drinking Water Industry: An Indian Context

Ensuring the availability of safe and clean drinking water at a given price is the right of a consumer as well as the key responsibility of the governing authorities. This is practically enforced by the standardization authorities exclusively for the industry. In the Indian packaged drinking water industry, there are three standards namely ISI (Indian Standards Institute), FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) which are mandatory for Indian products and ISO (International Standards Organisation) certification which pertains to International Standardisation that makes the product eligible for export trade. This paper covers the significance, specifications for each of the standards and the major differences between them.