Unpackaging the myth of safe bottled water in India

In contemporary India, bottled water has quietly shifted from an occasional convenience to an everyday necessity. Across railway stations, offices and restaurants, packaged drinking water is now routine, driven by declining trust in municipal supplies and the belief that water sealed in plastic is safer.

In recent years, however, scientific studies, including research conducted in India, have begun to challenge this perception. While bottled water is regulated and generally found to be microbiologically safe, concerns are no longer limited to bacteria and pathogens. Attention is now turning to less visible risks, including microplastic particles and trace chemicals that leach from plastic containers, and their potential long-term implications for human health and environmental sustainability.

Microplastics as top contaminant

Microplastics are plastic particles smaller than five millimetres. Bottled drinking water has become a direct and significant route of human exposure to these particles.

A study based in Nagpur, Maharashtra, detected microplastics in all sampled brands of bottled water, with concentrations ranging from 72 particles to 212 particles per litre. Locally bottled water showed higher contamination than national brands, pointing to possible gaps in bottling practices and quality control measures.

This pattern is not isolated. Studies examining bottled water from Mumbai and coastal Andhra Pradesh detected microplastics in every sample analysed, indicating that contamination occurs across regions and supply chains. Taken together, these findings indicate that microplastics in bottled drinking water is an emerging contaminant in India, not just confined to western markets.

The health effects of ingesting microplastics are still under investigation. However, these particles are known to carry toxic additives and pollutants. Emerging research suggests that smaller particles may cross biological barriers, raising concerns about the safety of bottled drinking water. The issue is further compounded by nanoplastics, which are even smaller particles, fall below current detection thresholds, and remain outside existing safety regulations.

This reveals a regulatory gap: while exposure through everyday sources such as bottled water is increasingly documented, safety standards remain focused on visible or short-term contaminants, leaving potential long-term risks largely unmonitored.

Bottled water is also vulnerable to chemical leaching from plastic containers. Additives such as antimony, phthalates and other plasticisers can migrate into water, particularly when bottles are exposed to heat or stored for prolonged periods — conditions common in India’s supply chains.

Leaching may occur during transportation, warehouse or retail display, especially when bottles are stored in direct sunlight. Studies show elevated temperatures and ultraviolet exposure accelerate this leaching process.

While detected chemicals remain within regulatory limits, existing standards typically assess isolated substances over short durations. They fail to adequately account for cumulative, long-term exposure to multiple additives, in combination with microplastics, thereby creating a critical disconnect between daily consumption patterns and regulations oversight.

Regulations lag behind

In India, packaged drinking water is regulated primarily by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), which oversees licensing, testing and compliance under updated norms following the removal of mandatory BIS certification. While this framework has improved baseline quality, its scope remains limited. These standards do not include testing for, or limit on, microplastics, nor do they adequately address long-term exposure to plastic-derived chemicals under real-world storage conditions.

State-level surveys, including those conducted in Karnataka, have frequently identified bottled water samples that are unsafe or substandard, highlighting gaps in enforcement rather than the absence of regulations. This challenge is compounded by a fragmented industry of thousands of small bottling units, many operating with minimal oversight and drawing on already stressed groundwater reserves.

The public health risks of bottled water usage cannot be separated from its environmental footprint. India is already grappling with a plastic waste crisis, generating millions of tonnes annually, of which single-use water bottles form a large share. As plastic degrades in landfills, rivers and oceans, it fragments into microplastics that re-enter ecosystems and water sources, which ultimately contaminate water sources, including bottled water supplies themselves. This convergence of environmental degradation and human health risk underscores the inadequacy of treating bottled water merely as a consumer convenience.

Towards safer alternatives

Bottled water remains indispensable during emergencies, disaster relief and areas lacking reliable potable water infrastructure. The concern, therefore, is not prohibition but over-dependence and misplaced trust.

In the interim, exposure risks can be reduced through point-of-use filtration capable of removing particulate matter, avoiding prolonged storage of bottled water under heat, and expanding access to refill stations and public water dispensing systems.

At a systematic level, strengthening the municipal water supply system, ensuring transparent public disclosure of water quality, expanding access to affordable household filtration, and improving consumer awareness can help recalibrate public trust toward monitored and accountable public water systems.

Equally important is updating regulatory frameworks to include routine testing for microplastics and plastic-derived contaminants currently absent in FSSAI and BIS standards.

When harm is clearly documented and scientific evidence continues to accumulate, the issue is no longer whether the problem exists, but whether policy institutions and regulatory instruments are willing to acknowledge it, measure it honestly, and assign responsibility.

Rohan Singh is an independent science and environment journalist. Venkatesh Dutta is Professor and Head, Department of Environmental Science, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Central University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh

Published – February 26, 2026 12:08 am IST