Water vending machines require licence from Health Ministry from Jan 1

PUTRAJAYA: Water vending machine operators must have a licence from the Ministry of Health from Jan 1 next year, said Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam.

He said on Wednesday that this rule was due to the enforcement of the Regulation 360C (4), Food Regulations 1985 under the Food Act 1983.

The cost of applying for a licence for one unit of water vending machine was RM150 for a period of two years.

"When the owner of the water vending machine (selling) applies for a licence, his machine will be checked. After that random checks will be carried out from time to time," he told reporters at his office.

Dr Subramaniam said the ministry would put a sticker on the machine, which has been inspected and granted a licence for user reference.

 Dr Subramaniam said the regulation was gazetted on Sept 24, 2012, and the Ministry of Health had given the industry stakeholders time to comply.

"Therefore, industry stakeholders are urged not to wait until the last minute to apply for licences. We want drinking water to be of sufficient standard," he said.

He said to date 2,540 licence applications had been received and of these, 59 applications were approved and granted a licence, while 2,481 applications were still being processed.

"If found guilty under the regulation, a person can be fined up to RM5,000 or two years' imprisonment," he said.

Since August 2014 to date, a total of 630 water vending machines have been checked nationwide and 786 water samples have been collected from the affected machines.

From the total, 22 water vending machines were confiscated of which four of them for not maintaining hygiene, 10 for containing bacteria and eight for claiming that the water sold can improve health such as recovering from blood pressure and curing diabetes, he said.

In the meantime, Dr Subramaniam said no Malaysian pilgrims were detected with the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). - Bernama