Government to bring drinking water under ''food'' definition

New Delhi: The Indian government is likely to come out with an ordinance to bring drinking water under the food category of the Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) Act.

"Until now drinking water was not defined as food and, hence, there were no norms. The government will come out with an ordinance to bring drinking water under 'food'. We will then set up a group of experts who will work out the norms for groundwater and drinking water," according to Health Minister Sushma Swaraj.

Bottled drinking water, however, has already been defined as 'food' under the PFA, when the health ministry had issued a notification two years ago making it mandatory for all packaged drinking water to sport the ISI mark from March 2001.

The effort to lay down norms for drinking water and groundwater comes as an aftermath to the controversy of pesticide residue in soft drinks, when both the Cola majors pointed out that soft drinks contained pesticides since its raw material, groundwater, contained pesticides. "The government will make public the report on the Cola controversy on Thursday," Swaraj said.