Is your bottled water worth it?
When you want to know what’s in your tap water, look at your local water utility’s website or check your mailbox for its annual report. You’ll find the source of the water and any chemical pollutants remaining after treatment.
IT’S THE LAW.
When you pay a premium price of up to 1900 times more for bottled water, you expect more.
But with rare exceptions, you get less.
All too often, you get nothing. Unless you count hyped advertising come-ons like “crisp,” pristine” or “essential.”
In our book, empty rhetoric means zero. Zip. Nada. Pure drinking water is all about the facts.
An 18-month Environmental Working Group investigation of bottled water labels and websites has found that:
Only 2 bottled waters disclose water sources and treatment methods on their labels and offer a recent water quality test report on their websites. These best performers are:
- Ozarka Drinking Water
- Penta Ultra-Purified Water
Just 18% of bottled waters disclose quality reports with contaminant testing results. Among them are all 8 Nestlé domestic brands surveyed:
- Poland Spring
- Nestlé Pure Life
- Arrowhead
- Calistoga
- Deer Park
- Ice Mountain
- Ozarka
- Zephyrhills.
None of the top 10 U.S. domestic bottled water brands label specific water sources and treatment methods for all their products.
via Is your bottled water worth it? | Environmental Working Group.
We at Nestlé Waters North America are also about facts, and the reports issued this week recognize our efforts to be transparent.
We identify water sources on our bottle labels and/or online and we have made our quality reports publicly available since 2005. Consumers can access these reports and source information via phone number or Web site, both of which are listed on product labels.
Bottled water is one of the most regulated food products, with FDA protocols specific to bottled water processing and labeling. While the FDA sets rules for bottled water as a food product, the EPA also requires that bottled water meets all of the requirements of public water supplies. Nestlé Waters’ own internal standards meet or are more stringent than regulatory standards in all cases.
Drinking more water is a smart, healthful choice, but bottled water and tap water are not the same. To check out the difference, consumers may want to compare a municipal water quality reports with one of our brand’s quality report.
Thank you for the opportunity to contribute.
Jane Lazgin
Director, Corporate Communications
Nestlé Waters North America