July 22, 2010

Most samples of Canadian bottled water contained bacterial contamination in excess of the limits for drinking water as specified by the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP), according to a recent study. 

The study of the quality of bottled drinking water in Canada showed that 70 percent of the samples exceeded the USP's limit for microbial contamination in drinking water. The USP states that drinking water should contain no more than 500 colony-forming units per milliliter (cfu/mL). In randomly selected bottled water samples ranging from half-liter bottles to office-sized 20-liter jugs, bacteria count ranged from less than 10 to 72,000 cfu/mL. 

The authors of the study called for standards to be set for bacterial levels in bottled water and for labeling to disclose the purification and treatment procedure. Regulatory bodies, including the U.S. FDA, the Environmental Protection Agency, and Health Canada, currently have no set limits for microbial contamination in bottled water.

Full article. (Food Quality)