Standards For Bottled Drinking Water

[DarwinK]

Who sets the standard for bottled drinking water? How can I check out my supplier and compare it to others? Is there a source that lists standards and who meets them?

For several years I've purchased bottled drinking water from a company that delivers to my home. I've been happy with the service in terms of timeliness, use of glass bottles, etc. However, in the past year the company changed the method of sealing its bottles--some bottles arrive with no seal--and I've begun to wonder if I'm merely purchasing tap water.

The company in question doesn't have a website.

Darwin

Edited September 22, 2007 by DarwinK

[Mid]

interesting topic ,

ours are delivered in the ubiquitous 20 Lt bottles with a plastic seal round the cap ,

however this fails to stop the reuse of split caps and occasionally there is enough sediment in the bottle to start a small garden .

[chevykanteve]

This is indeed an interesting topic. I know of one manufacturer who, when applying for the requisite production license, was told that the quality of the water was borderline at best because of a very high calcium content. The license was nonetheless granted. Kidney stones, anyone?

You would have to check the sample via an independent lab.

[macan]

The World Health Organisation wrote the book on drinking water quality and it can be downloaded from http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health...v/en/index.html

Here is a link to the Thai FDA standard for drinking water in sealed containers (if you accept that a bit of sticky tape around the cap constitutes sealing) http://www.qmaker.com/fda/new/images/cms/top_upload/1141917843_No61.pdf ://http://www.qmaker.com/fda/new/image...17843_No61.pdf This standard has stood since 1981 with a couple of minor wording updates.

If you really want to know, you can get water tested against this standard by a private internationally accredited lab in bangkok for 3,570 baht.

A quick and dirty way is to use a total dissolved solids (TDS) meter which you can buy for a couple of thousand baht, WHO standard is 500mg/l, i find that the RO water in the 20 litre containers that I buy is usually about 20-80mg/l (although this meter doesnt identify what the 20mg/l that you're drinking actually are).

[lazeeboy]

The World Health Organisation wrote the book on drinking water quality and it can be downloaded from http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health...v/en/index.html

Here is a link to the Thai FDA standard for drinking water in sealed containers (if you accept that a bit of sticky tape around the cap constitutes sealing) http://www.qmaker.com/fda/new/images/cms/top_upload/1141917843_No61.pdf ://http://www.qmaker.com/fda/new/image...17843_No61.pdf ://http://www.qmaker.com/fda/new/image...17843_No61.pdf This standard has stood since 1981 with a couple of minor wording updates.

If you really want to know, you can get water tested against this standard by a private internationally accredited lab in bangkok for 3,570 baht.

A quick and dirty way is to use a total dissolved solids (TDS) meter which you can buy for a couple of thousand baht, WHO standard is 500mg/l, i find that the RO water in the 20 litre containers that I buy is usually about 20-80mg/l (although this meter doesnt identify what the 20mg/l that you're drinking actually are).

stopped buying the 20 litre bottle ,half were green at the bottom ,now buy 6 litre bottles ,more espensive but cleaner ,no irony taste either ........

[chevykanteve]

The World Health Organisation wrote the book on drinking water quality and it can be downloaded from http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health...v/en/index.html

Here is a link to the Thai FDA standard for drinking water in sealed containers (if you accept that a bit of sticky tape around the cap constitutes sealing) http://www.qmaker.com/fda/new/images/cms/top_upload/1141917843_No61.pdf ://http://www.qmaker.com/fda/new/image...17843_No61.pdf ://http://www.qmaker.com/fda/new/image...17843_No61.pdf This standard has stood since 1981 with a couple of minor wording updates.

If you really want to know, you can get water tested against this standard by a private internationally accredited lab in bangkok for 3,570 baht.

A quick and dirty way is to use a total dissolved solids (TDS) meter which you can buy for a couple of thousand baht, WHO standard is 500mg/l, i find that the RO water in the 20 litre containers that I buy is usually about 20-80mg/l (although this meter doesnt identify what the 20mg/l that you're drinking actually are).

I'm interested. Which lab?

[DarwinK]

If you really want to know, you can get water tested against this standard by a private internationally accredited lab in bangkok for 3,570 baht.

Yes, I'd like to find out what I'm drinking. Where is this lab in Bangkok?

Cheers, Darwin

[candoman89]

It is important that you get the water analysed by an INTERNATIONALLY accredited lab. Note that just having ISO or whatever doesn't accredit the lab. Also; each of the individual tests have to be accredited, not just the lab. We have used a number of labs around the world for a variety of analyses and generally find the labs in Malaysia/Australia/USA and Canada to be acceptable (both to us and our clients). Some labs in Thailand actually ship their samples overseas for testing.

That being said; most of the tests are quite basic with the exception of some of the herbicides/pesticides/hydrocarbon/microbial tests. If you start getting into testing ALL of the parameters in the WHO appendix your analyses is going to run into tens or hundreds of thousand baht. General testing (mainly metals and inorganics) is quick and cheap.

My favorite lab in Thailand is called NCA (or used to be anyways)

Edited September 23, 2007 by candoman89

[DarwinK]

Thanks for that Candoman. Do you have any more details on the lab you mention that you can post or PM me? Haven't been able to find it, or a reference to any internationally accredited lab in Thailand that tests drinking water, on the net.

Cheers, Darwin

It is important that you get the water analysed by an INTERNATIONALLY accredited lab. Note that just having ISO or whatever doesn't accredit the lab. Also; each of the individual tests have to be accredited, not just the lab. We have used a number of labs around the world for a variety of analyses and generally find the labs in Malaysia/Australia/USA and Canada to be acceptable (both to us and our clients). Some labs in Thailand actually ship their samples overseas for testing.

That being said; most of the tests are quite basic with the exception of some of the herbicides/pesticides/hydrocarbon/microbial tests. If you start getting into testing ALL of the parameters in the WHO appendix your analyses is going to run into tens or hundreds of thousand baht. General testing (mainly metals and inorganics) is quick and cheap.

My favorite lab in Thailand is called NCA (or used to be anyways)

[keestha]

A quick and dirty way is to use a total dissolved solids (TDS) meter which you can buy for a couple of thousand baht

I used to have a colleague who had a small meter that you had to dip into the water you wanted to test, and then it displayed a number. The higher the number, the more molecules were in the brew that were not H2O. That could be traces of metal, insecticides or whatever, but also relatively harmless things like minerals. The cheapest drinking water, in the almost one liter bottles that cost around 6 Baht, gave a reading of 30+. A half liter bottle of the more expensive kind of water, retails for around 10 Baht, came up with 300+. The big surprise was that the water I draw myself from a depth of 19 meters under my land, also came up with just 30+.

Don't know if what he used was a TDS meter or something else.

Whatever questionable kind of water you are drinking: Cheers.

Edited September 23, 2007 by keestha

[candoman89]

Darwin:

Sent you the contact number for the lab.

Keestha: sounds like a funky (i.e. useless) meter. The higher the number the less water there is..............

[Maestro]

Keestha: sounds like a funky (i.e. useless) meter. The higher the number the less water there is..............

In Europe, “Mineral Water” must contain a minimum amount of mineral to earn that label. Thailand may have similar regulations, which may be the reason why some bottled waters are labeled “mineral water”, others simply “drinking water”

Not in Switzerland, but in Italy – don’t know if it is an EU regulation – the label on a bottle of mineral water lists not only the various minerals and their quantity but also a value for specific electric conductivity at 20 °C, given in μS/cm (microSiemens per centimeter). The label on the bottle I have on my table at the moment states 200 μS/cm. The higher this value, the higher the mineral content (or is it the other way around?). I have seen and drunk Italian mineral water with 360 μS/cm. I guess the TDS meter measures this parameter.

--

Maestro

[candoman89]

TDS and EC (electrical conductivity as you state) are basic and VERY GENERAL measures of the amount of minerals in the water. What they don't tell you are what the minerals are. I would much rather have potassium, magnesium and calcium (low TDS and low EC) than sodium and chloride (salt water) which would give you a much higher TDS and EC.

Got to be careful with labels