Do You Believe That Bottled Spring Water Really Comes From A Spring?

Types of waters

Bottled water is regulated as a food product by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA). Bottled water companies must adhere to the FDA's Quality
Standards, Standards of Identity (Labeling Regulations) and Good Manufacturing
Practices and requires beverage companies to label their waters to define where
the water came from and if it's been purified or carbonated. Bottled water can
be classified with terms such as “purified,” “spring,” “sterile” and “artesian”
(or “artesian well” water). All bottled water sold in the United States
(whether imported or domestic) must meet all of the same regulations. Here are
the classifications:

Artesian water/artesian well water

Bottled water from a well that taps a confined aquifer (a water-bearing
underground layer of rock or sand) in which the water level stands at some
height above the top of the aquifer.

Drinking water

Drinking water is another name for bottled water. Accordingly, drinking water
is water that is sold for human consumption in sanitary containers and contains
no added sweeteners or chemical additives (other than flavors, extracts or
essences). It must be calorie-free and sugar-free. Flavors, extracts or
essences (such as lemon-lime) may be added to drinking water, but they must
comprise less than one-percent-by-weight of the final product or the product
will be considered a soft drink. Drinking water may be sodium-free or contain
very low amounts of sodium.

Purified water

Water that has been produced by distillation, deionization, reverse osmosis or
other suitable processes and that meets the definition of purified water in the
United States Pharmacopoeia (pharmacological code) may be labeled as purified
bottled water. Other suitable product names for bottled water treated by one of
the above processes may include "distilled water" if it is produced
by distillation, "deionized water" if the water is produced by
deionization, or "reverse osmosis water" if the process used is
reverse osmosis. Alternatively "_____________ drinking water" can be
used with the blank being filled in with one of the terms defined in this
paragraph (e.g. "purified drinking water" or "distilled drinking
water"). These waters are taken primarily from metropolitan water sources,
run through mammoth commercial filters, and purified of chlorines, detritus,
and other items inappropriate for drinking water. You may have seen vending
machines outside of your supermarket that allows you to fill your own bottle
for 25 or 50 cents; this is the water and process that is used and is from metropolitan
sources or even the tap water adjacent to the machine’s location. They are
excellent to cook with when tap water quality is an issue.http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/5467759/ns/today-food/t/your-bo...