If you want to bottle and sell water, you must obtain a Food Sales Establishment license from the Georgia Department of Agriculture (GDA).
Before we can process a license application for bottled water sales, GDA must review test results from each source of water. We must review your annual test results each year you are licensed.
If you want to become licensed to bottle and sell water, send the test results listed below under "Applying for a License" to our office. There will be a 2-4 week turnaround once we have all of your documentation.
You can email test results to ManufacturedFoodInfo@agr.georgia.gov or mail them to
Applying for a License
Submit to the address above:
- Completed test results from each source of water.
- Identical analysis of the finished product. Radiological testing need not be repeated on the finished product if it was accomplished on source water testing.
- If you are labeling your water as "Spring Water" or "Artesian Water", submit the additional hydrogeologic/geohydrologic reports listed below.
Testing must be in accordance with the Georgia Department of Agriculture regulations, Chapter 40-7-6 and the current edition of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 165. The analyses should include chemical, physical, bacteriological and radiological. Test results must be on the Bottled Water Certification - Lab Analysis Report form.
Annual Renewals
Your annual renewal for your bottled water certification is due to GDA by December 31. Please send completed copies of the Bottled Water Certification - Lab Analysis Report form for source and finished product and supporting documentation from the laboratory. Physical, chemical, bacteriological, residual disinfectants/disinfection byproducts and radiological analyses, of the source water and the finished product, must be re-verified annually.
Acceptable Forms
All analyses must be submitted on the Bottled Water Certification - Lab Analysis Report form. This form must be completed by a state approved water laboratory with a notarized signature of the Chemist in Charge or Project Manager and returned to this office. If supporting laboratory data is sent with the state form, the signature does not have to be notarized.
"Spring Water" or "Artesian Water"
If you are labeling your water as "Spring Water” or "Artesian Water", you must provide additional documentation.
Spring water collected directly from the spring or gravity fed to a holding tank must be verified in writing by the inspecting authority of the state or municipal jurisdiction in which the spring is located.
If boreholes or other means of extraction are used, along with your other data you must also submit hydrogeologic reports demonstrating the hydraulic connection between the spring and the borehole.
Two sets of fingerprint analyses (one from the spring and one from the borehole) are also required. These analyses let us ascertain if the water taken from the borehole is, in fact, the same water as the spring.
Artesian sources also require hydrogeological reports establishing that the source is from a confined aquifer and that the water level stands at some height above the top of the aquifer.
The hydrogeologic (or geohydrologic) report must be prepared by an independent consultant using engineering and geological standard practices, and demonstrates that the well or borehole water meets the definition of spring water as cited in Department Rules 40-7-6-.01(14). If the well or borehole is within the State of Georgia, the report shall be signed and stamped by either a geologist or an engineer registered to practice in Georgia. If the well or borehole is outside the State of Georgia, the report shall be signed by either a geologist or an engineer registered in the respective state or country, or by a geologist or an engineer registered to practice in Georgia.
Signed and stamped hydrogeologic/geohydrologic reports must be forwarded to the Department for review before you can be licensed.