Two-fold price difference for distilled and mineral water: consumer council

Consumer watchdog finds all tested water samples safe, but the price varies greatly, and they urged consumers to think twice before consuming bottled water for the sake of the environment.

The Consumer Council tested and purchased 30 samples of common bottled water from different retailers for the test, ranging from 500 ml to 5,500 ml in volume and HK$3.6 to HK$114.7 in average price per liter.

The results showed that no harmful substances were found to exceed the relevant WHO guideline values in all samples, and they can be consumed with confidence.

However, the price of each sample varies greatly, as the average price per liter of natural mineral water samples is HK$20.8, which is three times the average price of distilled water and purified water samples.

The test revealed that natural mineral water samples had a higher total dissolved solids (TDS) content, which is used to analyze the taste and color of drinking water, but one sample had only 19 mg per liter, which was lower than one of the purified water samples.

Overall, the detected amounts of natural mineral water samples ranged from 19 mg to 657 mg per liter, a huge gap.

Although natural mineral water contains natural minerals, the content varied considerably among samples, and their retail price also varied. Thus, the results indicated that there is no necessary correlation between the retail price and the TDS content of a product.

The Consumer Council also pointed out that tap water is safe to drink after being boiled and is equivalent to a cost of $0.00262 per liter, compared to the average selling price of distilled water and purified drinking water samples, which costs 2,679 times that of tap water, making tap water more economical and affordable.

In addition, the council added that the consumption of plastic bottled water will have a profound impact on the environment.

Consumers are called on to change their living habits, bring their own environmentally friendly water bottles, and reduce plastic at the source.