FSANZ chief executive officer Steve McCutcheon said the application, made by the Australasian Bottled Water Institute, sought to adopt limits set by WHO in its Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality.
McCutcheon said that adopting the WHO limits would increase the number of chemicals with limits and would bring the requirements for packaged water in Australia and New Zealand into line with international standards.
“FSANZ is recommending adopting the WHO limits, with two exceptions. We are recommending maintaining the current lower limit for fluoride in packaged water and a marginally higher limit for styrene, which is used as a processing aid in packaged water.
“FSANZ has taken into account safety assessments conducted by expert advisors to WHO and FSANZ’s own assessments conducted for fluoride and styrene.
