Seven out of 70 bottled waters in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) contain bacteria that should not be present – this is the result of the monitoring of samples of packaged natural drinking water, conducted by the FBiH Institute for Public Health.
Director of the Institute for Public Health, Sinisa Skocibusic, said that the monitoring included 70 samples of natural mineral and natural spring waters from domestic producers and imported waters, taken from retail establishments.
He announced that two tests will soon be monitored, the determination of iodine in salt and the testing of parameters in children’s toys.
The Head of the Department for Microbiological Analysis of Food, Water, and Items of General Use, Daniel Maestro, pointed out that the sale of bottled water is one of the most dynamic sectors of the food industry and emphasized that only 15 percent of people in the region rarely or never consume bottled water. He pointed out that 49 percent of the sample was mineral water, 47 percent was spring water, and four percent was table water.
”Almost 31 percent of the tested water did not pass the verification procedure of the Food Safety Agency of BiH, and 50 percent of the bottled water was imported into BiH,” he stated.
Moreover, he stated that a quarter of the samples, 27.5 percent to be exact, did not comply with the relevant regulations, of which 61.1 percent did not comply with the declaration of the product. Speaking about microbiological parameters, that is, the healthiness of drinking water, he pointed out that seven out of 70 samples contained bacteria that should not be present in water.
According to him, the ph value of the water was within the permissible range, and the test showed that there were no heavy metals present.
The entity’s chief health inspector, Nijaz Uzunovic, said that they had received all the results of the monitoring and that they would act according to their authority.
