Qualidade da água mineral em garrafões de 20l no comércio varejista de Natal, Brasil

Abstract

The uncontrolled growth of urban areas, the consequent problems arising from contamination of public drinking water supply sources, people’s concernof a healthier lifestyle, triggering the consumption of consuming less caloric and more natural products led to changes in habits that resulted in a significant and increasing consumption of bottled water around the world. However, in recent decades, many studies began to find cases off bottled mineral water contamination by coliform and other bacteria, as well as changes in physical-chemical properties, resulting in noncompliance with the standards of potability and recommendations fromregulatory bodies, endangering the health of consumers. With that in mind, this study aimed to evaluate the quality of natural mineral water bottled in 20-liter containers, offered by retailers to the population of Natal, RN, Brazil. 64 random samples were taken by stratification in the four administrative regions of the city, considering the official points of salelist and contamination levels for total coliforms found in the pilot sample. The results of more prominent found contamination by total coliforms in 32.81% (± 11.8%) of bottles. Statistical tests of Pearson's coefficient and chi-square association applied found no correlation between total coliforms presence and: distance between points of sale and manufacturers; time of bottling; bottle age; municipal administrative region or storage mode. The comparison of information with another work done in 2015 allowed us to infer that there is an important route of contamination of fecal coliforms between the point of sale in retail and the glass of consumers.