T hink before you drink!

Don’t drink any water, drink TEMCO certified water!

Many problems and worries involving consumable products happening time to time, focus on safety of food and water has been increased by consumers as well.

So, at this time, let’s talk about spring water.

Tap water had its problems since it’s used everyday. There were few cases including, detection of heavy metal sustenance’s in tap water in South Korea in 1989, a carcinogenic particle, trihalomethane was found in tap water in 1990, the “D” electronics, spilling Phenol into Nakdong River contaminating the water in 1991, etc. the consecutive water contamination cases disturbed South Korea at the time.

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Phenol is a poisonous substance usually used for making dyes, resins, and herbicides, when it is mixed with chlorine which is a disinfectant material, causing a chemical reaction making very unpleasant smell that can also cause fatal impact to the skin and human body in general. Due to this incident, many pregnant women had miscarriages as well. And many started boycotting exercises against the “D” Electronics, not just the people in Yeongnam area, but throughout the country.

Also, this incident made many of the South Koreans to become more aware and highly attentive to having clean water in South Korea, and in 1994, bottled water market became officially made public in South Korea.

The world of paying money for drinkable water

Usually called “natural water”, however based on drinking water requirements, it is labeled as “spring water”. According to the Korean Spring Water Committee, it means that preserving safety of quality water continuously through physically cleaning naturally existing water in the environment, that is made drinkable, which is the water in a plastic bottle what we often drink everyday.

While the contamination of water became worse, the national average income has increased. Nowadays many households purchase bottled water as main source of drinkable water, due to the fact that there is advancement in standard of living and economy. The reason why many households started drinking bottled water is because it is inconvenient and troublesome to obtain drinkable water by boiling or using filters; and the number of 1 to 2 member households and working married couples have been increasing, because of all these reasons families have started to purchase bottles of water instead, since it is more convenient and economical. Also, it has become much more convenient to purchase water bottles in a large quantity or use water bottle delivery service, since discounts or lower prices are offered to the consumers in both cases. While the revenue of domestic bottled water market is expected to increase up to 1 trillion won, and there are more than 200 variety of bottled water products currently sold in the market; So, let’s think about which one should be considered for purchasing.

What does it mean it has long expiration date?

Just as food products, bottled water has expiration date as well. Expiration date for drinkable water must be within the 6 months of basic manufacturing date, and if one wants to exceed the within 6 months expiration date, must perform the extended period preservation testing to scientifically prove that bypassing the period of 6 months or certain time that is more than 6 months the quality of the spring water does not change, and upon finishing the test, must be approved by the commissioner of the environmental protection. However, even if there is a such guideline as mentioned above, there are almost no regulations that can be applied after the distribution. Unlike other dairy products, expiration date is comparably long, but the basic material that the container is made of can produce contaminated particles or deteriorate from heat and direct sunlight. So, if one drinks incorrectly stored bottled water, it can harm to his or her health rather than helping to satisfy the thirst.

Many of the consumers assume the fact that the bottles of spring water have been deteriorated if the expiration date is nearby; and they can’t find out how it was stored after it was bottled or for any products after they are manufactured, the length of time the products took to get the retailer. Currently what consumers can do is purchase and drinking the most recently bottled spring water by checking the expiration date, and not much of other options. Although someone may be exceptionally great at differentiating kinds and/or types of water by tasting it, even so, finding out if there is a change or deterioration has occurred is very difficult in the beginning when the bottled has not been opened. Also, even if finding out whether the bottled water has expired or deteriorated after drinking a little bit of it, trying to get a refund or returning it, would still a hassle and an inconvenient process.

Healthier choice! Healthier life!

The labels for spring water currently sold in the market is not printed accurately or for the consumers. Even if checking the back of the label, it is very difficult to read the small prints. Not only that, the limited indication of inorganic contents and the source of the product are on the label, but no exact manufactured or extracted location is indicated. The indication for origin of the product as well is not clearly shown either, and in South Korea, from deep sea water or from underground rock aquifer is printed largely on the label, but no exact location.

Such case like this, using the TEMCO app with a tap of a button to scan the QR code and viewing all the information about the distribution process, no more difficult to read labels! When the QR code is scanned, the length of time for the distribution process and time of storage (in and out days and arrival/departure) can be checked as well. Also, the consumers can look up the verification of quality in the app and the exact location of the manufacturer, so any information about the product has high reliability.

In relation to features above, the records of ‘status of company under violation of drinking water requirements’ and appearance of frequent polluted water substances in spring water products or violation of rules can be checked all at once.

Through one-time QR code scan, the details about how the product was delivered from manufacturer to the consumer and the transit information is confirmed through real-time data verification through smart contract. Since forgery of transit information is very difficult during the smart contract operation, only real-time and accurate information are saved into the blockchain which is the database that participants of the supply chain network are receiving, and it is utmost trustworthy. The fact that one can visibly check the distribution route of the product and easily check all the transparent information at once is very beneficial, defining the consumer oriented and smart lifestyle platform. Also, consumers and participants of the supply chain can login from anywhere and at anytime to conveniently check product distribution information, which is another great feature of the TEMCO app, providing reliable information to consumers who are purchasing the large quantities of bottled water or other products.

As one can discover, the TEMCO app is consumer subjective participatory interface; and in a case of product already registered in TEMCO market, through review and satisfaction rating in TEMCO community within the application, a direct sharing of product information is made smoothly. Throughout the participation period within the community, consumers are rewarded with TEMCO points, which are convertible to TEMCO tokens that allows them to purchase products from TEMCO market.

From the connections made through TEMCO market, consumers can purchase and write reviews about honestly manufactured and distributed products, helping supply companies to focus on retaining positive brand image and improving related issues regarding their products through fair ratings from the consumers.

Lastly, for products that have issues with quality, responsible party can be accurately detected, so that finding the solutions for issues and problems related to the product and service can be reduced by a far margin.

So TEMCO is building a platform directly connecting a manufacturer to consumers through smart contract and blockchain technology. In a long run, through improvement of distribution structure for supply chain participants, simplification in task completion, increase in product quality, strengthening safety device for distribution process, high interoperability of the service platform, can give advantages to the companies to increase quality level of the distribution process. All the important advantages for companies mentioned above can provide food safety, increase in reliability of distribution information, virtuous cycle structure, and friendly e-commerce market to the consumers.

Through the TEMCO app, become a smart TEMCO user! Drink fresh and healthy water!

★ Great Tips When Purchasing Bottle Water

For drinkable spring water, keeping it under low temperature, in a dark area or refrigerated. Also, when the bottle is opened, expiration rate is higher, so it is best to drink it early as possible.