Comparative Study of Bottled Water Microbial and Physicochemical Quality with National Standards and its label (A Case Study in Qazvin City, Iran)

Water is essential for sustaining life & adequate safe supplies must be accessible to the public. Nowadays، people prefer to purchase bottled water for reasons including taste، convenience، following fashion، and its safety and sanitary conditions. According to the WHO guideline، it is of great importance to control the bottled water because of keeping it for longer period of time and at higher temperature in comparison with the water of distribution networks، reusing containers and bottles without adequate washing and disinfecting، and more growth of microorganisms having less important in the terms of health. The aim of this study was to investigate the microbial and physicochemical quality of bottled water in the stores of Qazvin City and to compare the aforesaid features with national standards and to check the quality with the bottles label. In this cross-sectional study، 51 samples of 11 bottled water brands with different production date were obtained. The features were studied in accordance with Standard Methods. Then، the data were analyzed by T-Test and one way ANOVA analysis using SPSS software. Eventually، the results were compared with the national standards، the WHO guidelines، and the product labels. Results showed lack of microbial contamination of the samples. Physically and chemically، all the parameters measured were below the national standards level. Study of conformity of the variables to the label indicated that mostly there was a significant difference between the values measured and the values listed on the product labels. Although the concentration of microbial، physical and chemical features of samples were in the extent of national standards، there was a meaningful difference between labels and measured values so that the average concentration of TDS، TH، SO4-2، Ca2+، Mg2+ and Na+ would be more than the label values and the average of the other parameters was lower than the label values.