Abstract
People can survive several days without food, but just a few days without water. People buy bottled water for a variety of reasons, including convenience, fashion, and taste or because they think it is safer than tap water. The taste of the water has to do with the way it is treated and the quality of its source, including its natural mineral content. However, taste does not always indicate safeness. Refrigeration has a significant effect on the bacteriological quality of the purchased bottle. To asses the quality of bottled water in Egypt, samples of 14 Egyptian brands of uncarbonated natural bottled water were evaluated within 6 months. Biological examinations of a total of 84 samples were carried out using standard methods comparing them with the Egyptian standards No. 1589/2005. Also bacteriological examinations of 56 samples were carried out after "1-3" months and "3-6" months storage time at room temperature to detect the effect of storage on their quality. More than half (54.8%) of biological parameters were violated the Egyptian standards. A percentage of 28.6% of all bottled water samples were contaminated with coliform, but surprisingly fecal coliforms and E.coli were not detected. Moreover, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were isolated from 5.95% and 3.6%, respectively of all samples. Giardia lamblia cysts has been found in 2.4% of samples, while absence of Cryptosporidium oocysts in all samples was reported. More than half (52%) of the unrefrigerated samples were unacceptable compared to only 19.4% of the refrigerated bottles. These results suggest the need for continuous monitoring for evidence of contamination at source or during the bottling process.