Under the new standard it is articulated that packaged drinking water shall only be named or labelled with the term water. (Article 4.2) (See ChemLinked News 8 Jan 2015)
In China products with eye-catching names such as “oxygen-enriched water”, “glacier water”, “small molecular group water”, etc. are extremely common. The use of marketing gimmicks has led to confusion among consumers.
It is stipulated by NHFPC that packaged drinking water produced from 1 Jan 2016 shall conform to the aforementioned standard. Taking into account that most waters have an average shelf life of 12-24 months, it is estimated that by 2018 the vast majority of packaged drinking will conform to this standard.
Several companies have already started producing products compliant with the new standard. For instance, Wahaha Group, which is a Hangzhou-based water manufacturer, has renamed its “oxygen-enriched water” into “Yangshijie (meaning the world of oxygen) packaged drinking water”. The naming strategy of “brand name + category name” is likely to be adopted by many in the future.
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