What happens in a bottling plant?

Bottled water is put through a stringent process to guarantee high safety standards and to ensure that taste is in line with consumer preferences. This generally happens through 10 different stages.

1. Water is collected and transported through stainless steel pipes to a bottling facility. The original source is tested many times over for quality, and is regularly monitored for abnormalities.

2. For water originating from a municipal drinking water system, chlorines and THMs (trihalomethanes) are removed through an activated carbon filtration process. A water softener is used to reduce water hardness.

3. Demineralization removes unwanted minerals (through reverse osmosis or distillation).

4. Water received in storage tanks is monitored on a daily basis.

5. Selected minerals are added to cater to consumer taste preferences.

6. Pharmaceutical grade micro-filtration removes particles as small as 0.2 microns. It is also capable of removing potential microbiological contaminants.

7. Ultra-violet filtration provides additional product disinfection. Ozone disinfection is the third disinfection step (steps 7-9), using a reactive form of oxygen.

8. A highly sanitary filling room ensures that bottling is conducted in a microbiologically controlled environment.

9. Quality assurance for packaging is conducted by human workers, aided by the latest in modern equipment to ensure the removal of any packaging defects.

10. Line sanitation includes automated cleaning equipment to ensure maximum cleanliness, effectiveness, and control.