Apart from health-conscious and alkaline water beverages, many companies have decided to join the packaged drinking water market. Though, a recent crackdown by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has made public the extreme dangers of the adulteration of water, deceptive labeling, and usage of non-permitted ingredients in the products of packaged water. In May 2026, FSSAI’s Western Regional Office started the criminal proceedings against the misbranded alkaline water manufacturer after the firm received a consumer complaint via the Food Safety Connect portal. The consumer complaint mentioned that the FBO was not capable of handling the customer grievances satisfactorily. This very fact led to the scrutiny and market inspection of the production factory situated in Savli Vadodara Gujarat.

Inspection at the factory led to the discovery of the major food safety and labelling law breaches by the authorities. The officials having gone through the product packing saw the missing of a prominent product name on the main panel and the absence of ingredient declarations. The product was also found to be misbranded alkaline water, raising further concerns regarding regulatory compliance. Besides, the black particles visible in the bottled water posed a question in their minds on the product’s safety, quality, and compliance level being sold to the customers.  

Appropriate technical checking threw up some other issues as well, such as blackish-brown discoloration of water, formation of sediment, and a conflicting set of data between primary and secondary packing items. These inconsistencies indicated that product composition might have been tampered with or misrepresented. Given the gravity of the stuff, FSSAI broke the stocks worth about INR 31.61 lakh goods and launched the case under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.

Eventually, lab tests showed the product contains the alkaline waters fulvic acid. As per the FSSAI guidelines, fulvic acid is illegal in packaged drinking water products. The probe revealed that the chemical came from the appended black mineral matters, not the water’s natural components. This result made it clear that the product went against the laid down food safety norms and the regulatory requirements. This case is only a tip of an iceberg of concerns related to adulteration and other misleading practices in India’s food and beverage sector. The consumption of water products is very high and for this reason, customers usually put their trust in packaged water brands saying that they are safe and pure. But, if companies decide to use unapproved substances or turn a blind eye to transparent labelling, not only do they break the rules but they also endanger public health and lower the level of trust of consumers