As the owner of a bottled water company...I feel I should throw my 2 cents worth in here somewhere.
First off, every licenced bottled water company in Canada has to pass some pretty stringent regulations in order to get into the biz, and to stay in the biz. That's a given.
So relax. Your bottled water is likey to be very VERY safe. Some of the very best in the world. Guaranteed.
BUT...the bad news comes next. Prepare yourselves.....
Fact#1- MOST bottled water is just filtered tap water!
This is a well-documented fact. Some of the biggest name brands are nothing more than your own tap water that has been run through an industrial filtration system and then treated with some (probably) benign chemicals to sterilise it before it actually goes into the bottle.
(ALL Canadian bottled water MUST be sterilised before being bottled)
Fact#2- MANY (most) of the bottled waters that have the word "spring" in their actual name...are NOT really spring water!
In fact..their "Brand Names" are very often a total scam.
(example: "Canadian Springs"...this is a French-owned company called Danone that filters tap water and sells in on a large scale to an unsuspecting Canadian public. The company is NEITHER "Canadian", nor does it sell "spring water"...although you CAN get some water from them that does come from a natural spring. IF you pay extra. And ask real nice. AND if all the planets line up just right) [img]tongue.gif[/img]
Fact#3- All of the biggest food and soft drink companies are busy buying up all of the companies that bottle real spring water right, now while trying to establish market share in what most experts think will be the single biggest boom market since the oil boom of the early twentieth century. Soon after they buy them, they usually dilute the real spring water with filtered tap water from a municipal standpipe in order to radically increase output and maximise profit margins. Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Nestles are the biggest players in this particular game right now.
Let the buyer beware. What you THINK you are getting might NOT be what you actually get. It WILL be safe, that's guaranteed. BUT..it will probably NOT be anything more than expensive filtered tap water.
Fact#4- Those dispensers that you see at the supermarket are actually steam distiller units. (I know, we own one). Distilled water is totally safe...but it should not be consumed on an exclusive basis unless your doctor recommends it for some sort of medical condition. We sell our distilled water to auto shops (for car batteries) and to dentist's offices for use in dental equipment.
Not only that...but you should know that all sorts of people have gotten fairly ill because they filled up one of their own contaminated bottles with distilled water from a supermarket dispenser. You MUST sterilise your bottle before filling it...and then you must fill it RIGHT AWAY with clean water.
Anything less, and you are just courting disaster. Unchlorinated water that ends up in an unsterilised container is a breeding groud for all sorts of serious grief. Especially if it is stored in a well-lit place for a few days before being consumed. Don't go there.
NONE of these supermarket dispensers has any sort of washing and sterilisation facility for incoming customer-owned bottles. Bottles that are likely to be contaminated in some way or another, BTW.
Which is why they are being pulled out of most of the supermarkets out here in BC. (that's why we got our steam distilling machine for ten cents on the dollar from a supermarket that had run into just this sort of problem).
Fact#5- Look VERY hard at the label on your favorite brand of bottled water. This is IMPORTANT!
"Purified Water" means that it probably came out of the same municipal water system that supplies your standard tap water. It WILL be clean and safe. Guaranteed. But it will NOT be worth paying any sort of money for (save your money....buy a Brita).
"Naturally Pure Spring Water" means it came out of the ground under it's own pressure, and was already perfectly clean when it did... and is, therefore, vastly superior to any sort of "Purified" tap water.
Look at the PPM number that is clearly stated on every bottle of water sold in Canada. "PPM" means "Parts Per Million".
(explanation: Out of one million parts per million parts of water, there are exactly 3 or 30 or 300 parts that are NOT water in that bottle. Depending upon what the label reads. This is strictly monitored, BTW.)
Evian Water is over 300 PPM. Just slightly less than what is allowed as the absolute maximum. (much more than that and you have to chew the chunks to get it down!)
Most good true spring waters are between 30 and 100 PPM.
Distilled water should be zero PPM. If you only drink zero PPM water ALL of the time, then your digestive system may begin to look for minerals elsewhere...like in your bones. Zero PPM is not what you are looking for in a drinking water. You want LOW PPM...not ZERO PPM.
Bottom line? Look for "Real" or "Natural" Spring water. Not "Purified Water".
Look for the words "Bottled at the Source". This will eliminate most of the possibility for a scam (filtered tap water).
READ the "PPM number". It will be printed somewhere on the label. 100 PPM is fine. Twice that is probably OK. 50PPM is great...and anything LESS than that in a real naturally pure spring water is a GIFT! Buy it!!
And, I'll bet you will be able to tell how very good a low PPM natural spring water is, from the taste alone. This is what water SHOULD taste like.
[ September 13, 2004, 04:06 AM: Message edited by: macnutt ]
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