New | Almost a quarter of China’s bottled ‘purified’ water is sub-standard: report

Almost a quarter of purified drinking water tested by China’s top safety watchdog has been found to be substandard, with many products containing excessive levels of bacteria, the official Shanghai Daily newspaper said on Monday.

The findings underline the challenge to controlling supply chains in China, after a slew of food safety scares over the past year from donkey meat products contaminated with fox to heavy metals found in infant food.

The Food and Drug Administration found excessive bacteria in purified water products from the nation’s biggest drinks maker, Wahaha Group, as well as C’estbon Beverage and Danone SA’s Robust brand, the newspaper said.

In a statement posted on the official Xinhua news agency’s website, Wahaha said it had recalled the affected products and cut its supply relationship with the water station where it said the contamination occurred.

C’estbon and Robust were not immediately available for comment.

Chinese consumers either boil water for drinking or rely on bottled or barrelled water because of high levels of pollution in waterways.