Natural mineral water
183A.—(1)  Natural mineral water shall be underground water obtained directly from underground water bearing strata and characterised by its content of certain mineral salts and their relative proportions, and the presence of trace elements or of other constituents.
(2)  No water shall be advertised, labelled or sold as natural mineral water for the purposes of these Regulations unless documentary evidence to the satisfaction of the Director is furnished from the place of origin that the natural mineral water is genuine.
(3)  Natural mineral water shall not be subjected to any treatment other than —
(a)the filtration or decanting, preceded, if necessary, by oxygenation, to remove the unstable constituents, so long as such treatment does not alter the composition of the natural mineral water in respect of its stable constituents;
(b)the total or partial elimination of carbon dioxide by exclusively physical methods; and
(c)the addition of carbon dioxide, so long as the package containing the natural mineral water is labelled with the appropriate description.
(4)  (a)  Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in these Regulations, natural mineral water shall contain not more than —
(i)05 ppm of arsenic;
(ii)1 ppm of barium;
(iii)01 ppm of cadmium;
(iv)0.05 ppm chromium (VI);
(v)05 ppm lead;
(vi)2 ppm of manganese;
(vii)0.001 ppm of mercury;
(viii)01 ppm of selenium;
(ix)30 ppm of borate calculated as H3BO3;
(x)0.01 ppm of cyanide calculated as CN¯;
(xi)2 ppm of fluoride calculated as F¯;
(xii)1 ppm of iodine;
(xiii)45 ppm of nitrate calculated as NO3¯;
(xiv)0.005 ppm of nitrite calculated as NO2¯;
(xv)3 ppm organic matter calculated as O2; and
(xvi)0.5 ppm of sulphide calculated as H2S,
and shall contain no detectable amounts of mineral oil, phenolic compounds, surface active agents, pesticides, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons and polychlorinated biphenyls.
(b)  Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in these Regulations, natural mineral water shall be —
(i)free from parasites and pathogenic micro-organisms;
(ii)free from sporulate sulphite-reducing anaerobes in any 50 ml sample examined; and
(iii)free from Escherichia coli, other coliforms, faecal streptococci and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in any 250 ml sample examined.
(5)  Prepacked natural mineral water shall bear a label showing —
(a)the name of the source of water; and
(b)the amounts of sodium, calcium, potassium, magnesium, bicarbonates, chloride and sulphates present.
(6)  Where the natural mineral water contains more than 600 ppm of sulphate other than calcium sulphate, the package containing the natural mineral water shall bear a statement indicating that the natural mineral water may be laxative.
(7)  For the purposes of this regulation, natural mineral water includes spring water.
[S 179/1992 wef 01/05/1992]