Comparison of bacterial contamination load in small and big bottled waters; 2014-2015

There is a public concern about the microbial quality of distribution water systems that it induces increasingly consumption of bottled waters in our country. In Iran, bottled waters are produced in two packaging models; small (0.5 Litter) and big (1.5 Litter); microbial load of which can be deteriorated before using by consumer and durrin storage. This study was design to assess the bacterial contamination of bottled waters and compare the ratio of contamination in small and big bottles packaged.
in this descriptive and analytic study, 400 bottled water samples including 185 of small and 215 of big bottled waters were selected from Gorgan food markets during May 2014 to April 2015 from 10 popular brands. Microbial level of bottled waters were determined via Heterotrophic plate count (HPC) on the R2A medium with spread plated method. For statistical analyses, SPSS ver.23.0 were used by one sample T test and chi-square test in a P-value of
The mean HPC bacteria were 8557 and 11188 Colony Forming Unit per milliliter (CFU/ml) in small and big bottled waters, respectively, which are much higher than microbial standard (500 cfu/ml) set by drinking water. Moreover, in 85.0 percent of all samples tested, HPC level was more than 500 cfu/ml; that 40.8 and 44.2 percent of its related to small and big bottles, respectively. The statistical analysis showed that the quantity of bottles water did not have a significant effect on the number of bacteria.
Small and big bottled waters had a microbial contamination based on the heterotrophic plate count. Therefore, consumption of bottled water could be hazardous for public health particularly for lowered immunity.