What’s Really in Your Bottled Water? - Consumer Reports (2025)

FAQs

What’s Really in Your Bottled Water? - Consumer Reports? ›

“What's Really in Your Bottled Water?” CR's tests of 47 bottled waters found PFAS in several, especially carbonated ones. “How Safe Is Our Drinking Water?” CR worked with 120 volunteers across the country to test their water and found PFAS, lead, and arsenic in nearly all samples.

1. Mountain Valley Spring Water. Mountain Valley Spring Water tops the list for being one of the healthiest bottled water brands in 2024. The water has a naturally balanced pH between 7.3-7.7 which makes it slightly alkaline which can help neutralize acidity in the body.

Scientists tested bottled water from three different brands sold in the U.S. and found they contained up to 400,000 tiny plastic particles per litre.

Also concerning: The manufacturing and disposal of the plastic in all those water bottles is a major source of many of the chemicals that ultimately end up in, and contaminate, our drinking water.

Ozarka® Brand 100% Natural Spring Water.

1. Fiji. Since 1996, Fiji has offered clean, rainforest water to 60 countries. Sourced from an ancient artesian aquifer surrounded by dormant volcanoes, its purity is simply due to the fact that it's naturally filtered by volcanic rock.

Columbia University researchers tested bottled water for nanoplastics and found hundreds of thousands of them. Evian, Fiji, Voss, SmartWater, Aquafina, Dasani—it's impressive how many brands we have for something humans have been consuming for millennia.

Contaminated bottled water can harm your health, including causing gastrointestinal illness, reproductive problems, and neurological disorders. Infants, young children, pregnant women, the elderly, and people with weakened immune systems may be more likely to get sick from some contaminants.

The results were alarming: on average, each brand contained 8 different contaminants, ranging from caffeine and acetaminophen to fertilizers, solvents, plastic-derived chemicals, and strontium. Two brands, Walmart's Sam's Choice and Giant Food's Acadia, stood out for their particularly high levels of contamination.

Should I stop drinking bottled water? ›

Tap Water

However, as we discussed before, tap water is properly regulated. Again, bottled water can be filled with chemicals and other undesirable organisms and impurities. Tap water is less likely to have these issues. As a result, tap water is actually safer for you to consume than water from plastic bottles.

Various chemicals have the ability to seep into our bodies from things like plastic bottles and dermatological products. Serious health problems like insulin resistance, weight gain, endocrine disruption, lowered reproductive health and even cancer have all been related to these chemicals.

People who drink large amounts of bottled water with high concentrations of chemicals like BPA or other replacements have been shown to be far more likely to suffer from health conditions like cardiovascular disease or even Type 2 diabetes.

The added chemicals and filtration systems used ultimately affect how the water tastes and its final pH level. The study concluded that four (yes, only four) bottled water brands have a pH and fluoride level completely safe for your teeth: Fiji, “Just Water,” Deer Park Natural Spring Water, and Evamor.

A recent study also found that bottled water can contain 10 to 100 times more plastic than previously estimated — nanoparticles so tiny that they can migrate through our digestive tract or lungs and into the bloodstream, potentially distributing harmful chemicals through the body.

The mineral water scandal surrounding Nestlé is expanding: New media investigations in France show that the food company has apparently been filtering contaminated water using illegal methods since the 1990s and still selling it as “natural mineral water”, without informing consumers.

In fact, out of all materials, stainless steel bottles are regarded as the safest and healthiest water bottles. But why? As mentioned earlier, stainless steel is an alloy free from all toxins and does not shed chemicals even if the container is damaged.

The search results, however, mention a test showing Aquafina as slightly better in the antioxidants test compared to Dasani, but it should be noted that both waters were characterized as oxidizing which could be perceived as less beneficial for health.

In conclusion, the answer to is spring water better than purified water ultimately comes down to personal preference and individual needs. Spring water is considered to be more natural and less processed, and it may contain minerals that are beneficial for health.