Label! Select! Filter! This is how a bottle of qualified mineral water is produced →

If you drink bottled water every day, you must have noticed that they are all pure water, but why are the prices so different? Is it just because of different brands that the prices are different? Do these various bottled waters have any technological content?

Today, I would like to take this opportunity to talk to you about how a bottle of qualified mineral water is produced?

01 Standard: Drinking water has certain national standards

Yes, when we buy water, we will choose a certain brand or look at the price, but we rarely pay attention to what the specific water is. This is the consumer's perspective. From the manufacturer's perspective, production and labeling must be strictly in accordance with national regulations.

According to GBT10789-2015-General Rules for Beverages, packaged drinking water, also known as bottled water, is not actually one type, but has multiple categories [1].

Each of these has a different definition. For example, the definition of drinking purified water is:

Products made from water directly derived from surface water, underground water or public water supply system, after appropriate water purification processing.

Next, we need to find a water source.

02 Selection: The choice of water source is also very particular

Maybe you think that there are rivers, lakes and reservoirs everywhere, so it should be easy to get water, right?

No. Because, in order to meet the drinking water demand, we need a good water source. The surface water function classification "GB 3838-2002 Surface Water Environmental Quality Standard" divides water quality into the following categories [2]:

So even though there is a lot of natural water, many water bodies still cannot meet this standard. Our Ministry of Ecology and Environment will publish the national surface water environment quality status, where we can see the water quality status of many water sources.

For example, when looking at the water quality and nutrient status of the six lakes (reservoirs) that were tested, we can see that Taihu Lake, Chaohu Lake, Dianchi Lake, etc. all have Grade IV water quality, which only has "usage functions" such as industrial water and agricultural water, but cannot reach the drinking level. In other words, although Taihu Lake is large, you cannot take water from it for drinking [3].

The best water quality comes from Danjiangkou Reservoir, which is known as the "Water Capital of China" and the source of the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project. Even 70% of Beijing's domestic water comes from here, so it is also known as the "Capital Water Well". As the "national team" of my country's water sources, the water quality protection of Danjiangkou Reservoir has always been a top priority. The water quality has been maintained at Class II and above for 10 consecutive years, which is also the first-level standard for drinking water sources.

If you are interested in the water quality of a certain place, you can go to the National Surface Water Quality Automatic Monitoring Real-time Data Release System. Here you can see the real-time water quality monitoring:

03 Filtration: Is it enough to just find the water source?

But is it enough to just find the water source? Of course not. You need to filter the water.

When water is transported from a high-quality water source through a pipeline, it must first be filtered. Although it is pure natural water and of first-class quality, if you want to drink it, you must filter out some possible impurities. And this filtering process must be meticulous and filtered in different categories.

Take a certain brand as an example, when high-quality natural water comes to the production line, the first thing to go through is quartz sand filtration. The quartz sand filter medium can use the gaps between its particles and surface adsorption to intercept impurities in the water, such as suspended matter, colloidal particles, microorganisms and other solid particles that are insoluble in water.

After quartz sand filtration, the next step is carbon filtration, which uses activated carbon for filtration.

Activated carbon filtration mainly utilizes the adsorption effect of activated carbon to remove harmful substances such as odor, color, residual chlorine, organic matter, heavy metals, etc. that are dissolved in water. This can not only improve the taste and smell of water, but also remove harmful substances in the water.

After completing these two steps of filtration, the water is basically very pure. However, some friends asked, isn't there a kind of mineral water? What is the role of minerals?

04 What are the functions of minerals?

There are seven major nutrients for the human body. In addition to the familiar proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, mineral elements are also one of the members of the seven major nutrients. They are very necessary for the health of the body.

Taking calcium, which is familiar to everyone, as an example, many people think that calcium is a component of bones and is used to maintain the basic physiological functions of bones. However, if calcium only has this function, it would be too underestimated. In fact, calcium itself is also involved in other physiological and biochemical processes. For example, calcium ions themselves are components of many enzymes, and calcium ions are also one of the basic components of important proteins in the human body's signaling pathways. In addition, calcium is also involved in the maintenance of nerve, muscle and other activities. Once these physiological activities lack calcium, they will cause huge problems in the body. Therefore, the body will give priority to maintaining the calcium needs of these tissues.

Similarly, other mineral elements such as sodium and potassium are also essential for the health of the body, which is why they are listed as the seven major nutrients of the body.

However, some people may ask, the mineral content in water is actually very low, does this amount have any impact on health? The answer is yes.

In fact, as early as the 19th century, researchers observed that there was a certain correlation between mineral elements in water and mortality. As more and more studies have emerged, the relationship between mineral elements in water and health has become very clear.

For example, a study of more than 200,000 residents in Hungary revealed the relationship between mineral elements in water and cardiovascular disease. Water hardness is an important indicator for evaluating the mineral content in water. The researchers selected 206,159 residents from four regions in Hungary and explored the incidence of cardiovascular disease among their residents from 2000 to 2010. In order to avoid the influence of age, the study also used an age-standardized method to eliminate the age factor [4].

The results showed that there was a significant negative correlation between water hardness and the incidence of cardiovascular diseases among residents.

In other words, the higher the mineral content in water, the lower the incidence of cardiovascular disease, which means that the mineral elements in water are beneficial to cardiovascular health.

05 What is the relationship between water hardness and the human body?

In fact, there are many studies on the hardness of drinking water and cardiovascular disease. For example, this meta-study summarizes some research contents and shows that, in general, water hardness has a reducing effect on cardiovascular disease [5].

In addition, some researchers have conducted further research on the relationship between water hardness and health. As shown in the figure below, water hardness is as follows [6]:

The blood biological indicators of homocysteine ​​(Hcy), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and arginase in young people (ABC) and rabbits (DEF) who drank the above water were compared.

It can be clearly seen that the TDS and hardness in the water will have an impact on these indicators, and their changes can even be seen in the microscopic structure of the arteries and heart.

All of this reflects that mineral elements in water are not dispensable, but can have real effects. Other studies also support that mineral elements in water have a protective effect on many health conditions such as cancer, diabetes or metabolic syndrome, hypertension, fractures and even mortality [5].

In fact, as the source of life, the mineral elements that the human body obtains from water account for about 5% to 25% of the total intake, which is an amount that cannot be ignored.

Of course, after the filtration is completed, the next step is disinfection. Yes, although there are many filtration strategies, disinfection is still necessary to avoid the influence of various microorganisms. Only after all this is completed can the product be filled and packaged and finally delivered to the consumer.

It can be seen from this that as a bottle of qualified drinking water, it can only reach the consumer market after going through the selection of water sources, water collection, filtration and disinfection.

References

1. GBT10789-2015- General Rules for Beverages

2 GB 3838-2002 Surface Water Environmental Quality Standard

3 The Ministry of Ecology and Environment announced the national surface water environment quality status in the fourth quarter of 2023 and from January to December

https://www.gov.cn/lianbo/bumen/202401/content_6929073.htm

4 Nagy, János, et al. "The hardness of drinking water negatively while socio-economic deprivation positively correlates with the age-adjusted mortality rates due to cardiovascular diseases in Hungarian wine regions." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16.18 (2019): 3437.

5 Bykowska-Derda, Aleksandra, et al. "The Relationship between Mortality from Cardiovascular Diseases and Total Drinking Water Hardness: Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis." Foods 12.17 (2023): 3255.

6Luo, Jiaohua, et al. "The consumption of low-mineral bottled water increases the risk of cardiovascular disease: an experimental study of rabbits and young men." International Journal of Cardiology 168.4 (2013): 4454-4456.