Abstract

The human body is primarily water and healthy drinking water is vital to human life. Today, the bottled-water industry has been widely developed in most countries and more than 150 several brands of bottled water are produced in Iran. Considering the increasing consumption of bottled water and its potential for contamination with harmful chemical and microbial agents such as nitrate, the aim of this study was to assess the nitrate concentration and also the microbial quality of bottled water in a number of brands produced in the Torbat-e Heydarieh city in 2017. In present descriptive-analytical research, random sampling (80 samples) was done by collecting 1.51 bottled water with different production dates from 20 factories. These samples were collected in four different seasons. Measurement of nitrate concentration and microbial quality including total and fecal coliforms, were performed according to the Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater. The results indicated that, in general, the mean concentration of nitrate in all samples was range 0.6-16 mg/L and all samples are within the national standard of Iran (less than 50 mg/L) and international standards. Also, total coliforms and fecal coliforms in any of the studied samples were zero. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier lnc.