QUALITY EVALUATION OF SOME BOTTLED WATERS AVAILABLE IN IRAQI MARKET

Abstract

This study was intended to evaluate the quality of some bottled waters available in Iraqi market, by testing their physical, chemical and biological characteristics. These samples produced by four companies during the period of December- 2016 to April-2017. The selected companies had the biggest sells and were under the trade names of AlluLua, Ala, Alwafi, and Venesia. The results showed that most bottled waters samples characteristics were in compliance with Iraqi and international standards, with some superiority in water quality for the trade mark Allulua upon the other companies, but the trade mark Ala was at the end of the list of quality rank. All the tested samples showed clean bacteriological results for coliforms as pollution indicators and fecal coliforms (all tests MPN was less than 1.1). The other physical and chemical characteristics showed pH range of 6.21 ~ 7.7, TDS of 12.81 ~ 126.88 mg/L, Ca of 0.24 ~ 25.5 mg/L, Mg of 3.2 ~ 13.1 mg/L, Na of 0.92 ~ 23 mg/L, K of 0 ~ 0.39 mg/L, Hardness of 3.8 ~ 38.2 mg/L, and chloride of 3.55 ~ 35.5 mg/L.