Microbiological quality of bottled water

Bottled water is now the biggest selling soft drink in Europe (van Musschenbroek, 1995) with sales topping 700 million litres in 1994 in the UK alone (Natural Mineral Water Association, pers comm). As part of a wide ranging UK Department of the Environment Programme to assess possible risks from the consumption of drinking water from all sources, a survey of the microbiological quality of still bottled water, at the point of sale, was conducted. A total of 17 different brands of still water (both natural mineral and other bottled water) in a variety of different containers (plastic and glass, clear and coloured) were tested for total colony counts at 22°C and 37°C, total coliforms, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, aeromonads, faecal streptococci and sulphite-reducing clostridia. Bottles were purchased from various suppliers in order to obtain a range of different sell by dates.