Bottle wars: England versus Scotland versus France

Abstract

Four batches of four brands of bottled water from England, Scotland and France were tested for their microbiological and physicochemical characteristics during a 2-month study. The lowest priced brand of water had the highest nitrate content (46.9 mg/L), while the most expensive brand did not necessarily have the best values for pH, total dissolved solids, turbidity or plate count. While no sample was positive for E. coli, the range of other measured values varied widely between brands and batches during the study. The bottled water samples from France on average demonstrated better results than the other countries studied.