The Maldives Food and Drug Authority (MFDA) has warned against drinking some Life brand bottled water following complaints over the presence of dust and odors.
“We have noticed undesirable smells and dust in some of the Life water bottles produced and sold in the Maldives,” the MFDA said in an alert yesterday.
The authority has warned against selling and consuming bottles labeled Batch 226. All of them are 1.5 liter bottles.
However Happy Market Pvt Ltd which produces Life says its water is safe for drinking. Life is one of the three locally produced brands of water.
A significant number of households in the Maldives now drink bottled water. Exact statistics are unavailable.
Neither MFDA nor Happy Market revealed details of how many bottles were produced under Batch 226.
The MFDA said it is “investigating the matter with further research and laboratory tests.”
Happy Market’s Ahmed Suad said the company has documents proving Life water is safe for use.
“All of our bottled water batches are approved by the authority [MFDA]. The statement is worded in such a way that it causes panic,” said Suad.
But MFDA’s Director General Shareefa Adam said the authority does not approve every single bottle of water.
“We do factory audits and give approvals to the factory. We also conduct random samplings. But we don’t test every single batch, it is not possible to do so,” she said.
The MFDA’s preliminary review noted odors in the bottles which means the water does not meet standards set by the World Health Organization, she added.
Meanwhile, one Twitter user who drinks Life water regularly says he has not had any reactions.
I’ve been drinking #life #water pat 3-4 days from batch number 226. Insha Allah I’ve not had any illness or reactions pic.twitter.com/YletzveN5u
— Vaail Hussain (@VaailHussain) May 23, 2015
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