A comparative approach to the variation of natural elements in Italian bottled waters according to the national and international standard limits

Abstract

Water is essential for life and contains minerals which play an important role in human nutrition. The market of mineral water has been growing steadily over the last few years. Italy is the country with the highest production and consumption in the world. Current international drinking water regulations are not very clear, as well as being completely absent in several countries. They also present contradictions between drinking water intended for human consumption and those to be bottled. This work focused on mineral water due to the wide public acceptance and economic interest of this product. Bottled mineral waters (371 brands) from all the Italian regions (20) were characterized by means of the physico-chemical and chemical composition (52 parameters) reported on their label by using statistical analysis. The relationships among selected variables were examined by Durov and Piper diagrams. A comparison between the water quality composition and the standard limits fixed for both mineral and drinking water by national and international regulations EU, Italy, USEPA, Canada, Spain, CODEX, WHO) is also discussed. The analysis shows that Italian waters are rich in natural elements that unequivocally characterise its taste and quality. A comparison of our results against the current Italian regulations for mineral waters shows that out of 371 bottled mineral water studied, only 2 have problems in terms of Ba and Pb concentration. However, when compared to the limits established by international regulations, there appear to be several contradictions. Only 2 Italian regions out of 20 would fulfil the drinking water regulation for all the parameters where standard limits or guidance values are defined. Some elements show a clear regional dependency. Upon studying the large natural variation in concentration of the 52 parameters, it becomes evident that we know very little about the natural variation of element concentration in water as well as the health effects of most of the elements in drinking waters.