Korean consumers will be able to choose from a variety of bottled water as the government plans to make quality standards more flexible to diversify types on sale and expand the nation’s water market.

The Environment Ministry said Sunday that they plan to ease restrictions on water quality in order to allow production of various kinds of water such as sparkling water, alkali ion water and high-mineral water.

Under current rules, all potable mineral water should fulfill the level of calcium salts and magnesium at 500 milligrams per liter and pH level of 5.8 to 8.5 and should have no flavors other than the taste from antiseptics.

This allows only one type of potable mineral water, not much different from tap water, to be produced, causing domestic water brands to fall behind in global competition with foreign brands.

However, there are no such standards for natural mineral water in other countries such as the U.S., France and Japan.

The government plans to ease the water quality criteria ― the level of calcium and magnesium salts to 1,200 mg per liter and pH level to 5.8 to 9.5 ― to foster domestic water businesses and expand export opportunities for them.

It also plans to delete the taste criterion and change the level of gas containment in water. Currently, the level of carbonic gas in water should be under 0.1 percent and natural carbonic gas should be captured independently from the original source.

Easing the level of carbonic gas in water will make water companies able to produce sparkling water such as Perrier of France and Apolinaris of Germany, and also give customers more choice, the Ministry expects.

“The potable water currently produced has no taste, but after water restrictions are improved, customers will be able to taste many types of water,” said environment ministry officials.

The government is also expected to specify labels on water bottles from natural mineral water to spring water so that customers will be able to recognize the sources and choose water they prefer.

By Lee Woo-young  (wylee@heraldcorp.com)