There are many guidelines available for maximum permissible limits of various parameters in bottled drinking water but not for minimum limits of the minerals contents must available.
In my experience this tends to vary from country to country and depending on they type of water being declared. Drinking water, spring water and mineral water. the best way is to look at local legislation first and use the references in that to expand your search area
hope this helps
Every country has an acceptable limit but the universal is the WHO standard for drinking water. WHO standard is safe for most of the countries in the world
It seems less useful to set a minimum international requirement in this regard probably considering some of the following reasons (i) the dietary source of the minerals is not only bottled water but there many options (ii) the trace elements (e.g. arsenic) are usually potentially toxic when above than when below recommended limits (iii) local conditions differ per country
Dear Dominic, Ncube and Charles
We all know about the permissible limits of various parameters in drinking water set by WHO and other local State/ Country agencies, but my question is not about the max limit of the parameters( which are harmful if taken in excess), whether we should take the distilled water as there will be nothing. Are the RO water which do not contain the essential minerals are good to consume? Is it safe or there must be some minimum amount of essential mineral in our drinking water (Packaged) whether it is coming from RO, UV treated, Ozonization or any other methods. I have learned that even WHO in 2004 has recommended a minimum of 10 and 20 mg/l of Mg & Ca respectively in drinking water.
It varies with Countries ,it will be essential if you checked the regulations for your country.Each and every country has Statutory Instruments ,Policy or regulations for Drinking water ,spring water and mineral water .WHO guidelines only give an umbrella guideline for countries but countries themselves have streamlined and worked out their guidelines based on this.
Dear Sudhir
the minimum levels will depend on what the water is labelled as. there is separate levels for different type of bottled water (mineral water, spring water and drinking water) and again this varies form country to country. Some countries will only set upper limits where other countries will specify a upper and lower limit the water should be within to be allowed to use a specific label. All will follow the basic guidelines set by WHO but when it comes to specifics it will depend on local legislation
Iron 0.5 - 50 mg/L
Manganese not above 0.5 mg/L
Chlorides not above 250 mg/L
You can also get more info from
WHO's Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality (WHO, 2003)
I would suggest to check a country of your interest import/export requirements as every country has its own acceptable limits for water constitutes. In my experience e.g. I made water market and regulation research: analysed import/export statutory requirements across over 20 countries, and have found that bottled water may be exported under different definition e.g. potable natural mineral, naturally carbonated, non-carbonated, de-carbonated, spring water, etc. I would suggest also to have a look at the WHO/FAO CODEX Alimentarius to see guidelines / requirements for bottled-water. I do not think that to use the WHO standard for drinking water is appropriate in your case, as they may be 'soft' and/or 'hard' depending on to which country/s are you planning to import bottled -water. You may read my article "Waters of New Zealand: Inside the Bottle' which might be of interest to you, - https://nztoday.co.nz/waters-new-zealand-inside-bottle/ Kind regards, Alexander
Remineralization of desalinated water is described in detail in the WHO publication. Please see attachment.
Best regards
Vit
Generally, the standards define the superior limits of the quality of drinking water, the lower limits are not defined, but the content of (Ca + Mg) should not be lower than 150 mg / l of CaCO3. especially for babies
The standars are fixed according to the daily dose (different sources of the element for example Ca)
Dear Neema
Please check again the limits as what you have written about upto 50 mg/l iron can not be taken as correct figure
The minimum essential minerals are calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, sodium and chloride
The trace minerals like chromium, copper, fluoride, iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium and zinc may not form "the essential minerals"
The humans need to have at least 100 mg/d of macro minerals. Considering that the human consumes 2L of water daily, the macro minerals 50 mg/d /L of bottle. If the consumption of daily water is more say 3 bottles i.e 3L the requirement could be 33mg/d/L
Many of the papers indirectly connote 20 -30 mg/ L of such minerals for adults-males and females.
Research in this field is not yet concluded. The question is very important and some norms must be prescribed for minimum number of minerals and minimum limit of the each of the mineral in the bottled water
I agree with the logic made by Dr K N Sheth But the minimum limit for all minerals should not be the same I think
Bottled water may be carbonated or not. Sizes range from small single serving bottles to large carboys for water coolers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottled_water
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Filing