The roundtable will be a forum to debate what the minimal water standards and testing regimen should be in different sectors of our global food production system. Waterborne illness, contaminated foods and foods rejected for export and denied entry as imports often trace back to polluted water used in irrigation, unsafe water used in manufacturing and processing, as well as breakdowns in the regulatory infrastructure. Four speakers will describe in brief vignettes (10 minutes maximum) a water quality situation and what water standard and testing protocol he/she believes is acceptable for a given food product or process. Vignettes will cover: irrigation water in FSMA, UK’s law treating water as food and the implications, ILSI’s new beverage processing standards, and Canadian water standards for food. Two additional panel members and a moderator will join the speakers (with audience participation) to discuss and debate when water should be treated as a Critical Control Point (CCP) in a HACCP plan, be in a pre-requisite program or stay within sanitation Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). Since water quality is so critical to the manufacturing of safe food it must be managed from sourcing/receipt through production and packaging. Effective water programs need to be in place to control microbiological, chemical and physical attributes. Handouts of various water standards – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Safe Drinking Water Standard, World Health Organization standards, USDA irrigation water standards, Canadian Environmental Protection Act, European Drinking Water Directive and the U.S. Model Food Code will be provided to attendees. The goal of this roundtable is to develop a white paper on what ideal risk-based water standards and testing programs need to be in place to ensure sufficient controls for water quality and food safety attributable to water.