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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Security Standards Applied to Drinking Water

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This chapter presents security standards as applied to drinking water, based on the assumption that freshwater sources face huge threats for humankind both qualitatively and quantitatively due to uncertain global changes, namely population growth, rapid urbanization, and climate change. The study investigates whether the International Featured Standards (IFS—Food), which are complementary to HACCP (Hazard analysis and critical control point), can be used as a system of indicators to measure water security. The case study focuses on bottled water, by identifying structural and contingent risk factors for water as essential food and investigates the suitability of the IFS instrument as an indicator of food security. Given the variables of the food safety indicators, we consider research results which reflect the accessibility level of drinking water resources, the time in which they become unappealing and the risks that may arise in the bottled water production flow. According to the IFS principles, the security of the entire technical flow, for each danger (contaminants, acts of sabotage, vandalism, bioterrorism, and vulnerability to food fraud), and preventive controls associated at each stage of the production process needs to be ensured.