How do we know MINERAL water is just water from a TAP?

Question

I mean, what's the difference. What am i paying for?

Answer 1

A nice bottle?

Some bottled water is just tap water - Coca Cola bottle tap water in London and sell it.

Tap water does have additives - most notably chlorine - while mineral water cannot (at least in the EU) have any. This means mineral water is not safe to drink for some - eg babies.

Answer 2

Pure water has no taste. If it is really pure, filtered, distilled, etc. Then it has essentially no minerals or chemicals in it at all. Tap water varies tremendously from place to place. In some places it is taken from river water that has already been through several sewage treatment plants. That water is sanitary (no disease causing organism) but can have lots of chemicals in it. In a few places there are truly clean water sources and the tap water is as clean as some commercial bottled water. Bottled water could be "pure" meaning that it has no significant amounts of chemicals, but that doesnt tell you anything about where it came from. Or it could be "mineral" water from a spring or well that definitely has minerals in it from the rocks that it travelled through before it was pumped out - especially calcium or sulfur or carbon dioxide. In some cases in the USA there are companies that sell bottled water that is tap water, filtered clean and then with small amounts of minerals added to deliberately give it a taste.
What are you paying for? Advertising and a huge profit margin for the bottlers. Are you kidding -- selling water for $2 a small bottle. This is a businessman's dream!

Answer 3

In 1999 Government regulations came into force covering the labelling requirements of bottled waters, to help consumers make informed choices about the products they buy. As a result, the levels of all minerals in natural mineral water must be listed on the label. Tap water would not have the so called list of minerals in it.

Answer 4

As a consumer you don't know unless the taste is different! Then again different areas have different tastes. Also mineral water is classed as a food and hence can have microbiological content. Tap water has a chlorinated/fluorinated taste. You pay for the packaging and the name ironically! If you wanted you could bottle tap water and sell it as plain water, not mineral water.

Answer 5

The main difference is the filtering process. Mineral water use natural process of filteration, and those accumulated water may be from centuries ago. Whereas, tap water uses articifical filteration. You could usually tell the difference by their tastes.

You are paying for the price for the natural filteration. And for the work they need to gather and transport the mineral water (i.e. drilling, bottle...etc.

Answer 6

The usual definition of mineral water is -water with minerals in it .
Most bottled waters come from a Spring such as Buxton or Highland Spring.
You can never know for sure without using chemicals to check.
In England , check for fluorides( all tap water contains fluoride and chlorine traces).

Answer 7

There was a case a while back where that was happening I think it was coca-cola that producing the stuff, they didn't advitse it as mineral water but they claimed it was 'pure'. It turned out that it was just tap water!

Answer 8

Unless you take it to a lab for analysis you don't know. You just have to buy water from a company with a good name. It's doubtful Coca Cola is going to jeopardize their reputation selling tap water as mineral water.

Answer 9

MINERAL water shouldn't be water from a TAP, it's unlkiely to be except for some scurrilous suppliers, best to buy a reputable brand. Here the taste tells you as tap water is undrinkable due to being desalinated, so we can always tell.

Answer 10

Trust me if you got a glass wit mineral water in it and a glass wit tap water in it you would know the difference.