Updated SANS 241 standard

Many Food Safety Standards stipulate that even water for cleaning and in the case of farmers, irrigation water must be potable. This brings us to SANS 241 the South African definition of potable water. This is the standard that South African food manufacturers have to comply with should they wish to state that their water is potable.

A new version of SANS 241 has been recently published which makes for interesting reading. The standard has been separated into two parts namely: SANS 241-1 : 2011 Ed. 1 Drinking water Part 1: Microbiological, physical, aesthetic and chemical determinants and SANS 241-2:2011 Ed. 1 Drinking water Part 2: Application of SANS 241-1.
This article take a quick look at the changes.

Part 1 as the name suggests deals with the actual requirements of drinking water. There are definitions for each of the determinants and terms used in the standard. This is followed by the microbiological determinants. The standard has taken a risk based approach to expressing the requirements which is in line with the current industry trend of risk based ssessments. What is interesting is that the standard limit for Heterotrophic plate count is ≤1000 unit count per ml which may become the source of much debate, although this determinant has been identified in the standard as only an operational determinant. Part 1 also deals with physical, aesthetic and chemical requirements.

Part 2 Outlines the interpretation of results obtained and includes an in depth sampling guideline. Interesting to note that there is a water grading system where indices are used to determine the water’s overall performance. The standard outlines how to calculate such indices and provides tables to interpret the indices. However to err on the side of caution would probably be more suitable to most food safety practitioners where if the water fails a determinant then it is considered unfit for use.

If one considers the nature of the information supplied in these publications it does appear that these standards are mainly intended for use by those who are responsible for providing potable water to the public and industry that iit's aimed at water works and municipalities. This does not mean however that the standard does not apply to the food industry, the actual values for the various determinants are a good guide in determining how safe our water is. It is just that most of the information supplied in the standards would not apply to most food safety practitioners.

The new standard can be purchased from the SABS https://www.sabs.co.za/

Author: M Hattingh Cert.Sci.Nat

References

SANS 241-1 : 2011 Ed. 1 Drinking water Part 1: Microbiological, physical, aesthetic and chemical determinants
SANS 241-2:2011 Ed. 1 Drinking water Part 2: Application of SANS 241-1.

Updated SANS 241 standard

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