Main Microbiological Pollutants of Bottled Waters and Beverages

Curutiu, Carmen; Iordache, Florin; Gurban, Petruta; Lazar, Veronica; Chifiriuc, Mariana Carmen

Although consumption of quality drinking water should be available to anyone, without any risk, in reality, for the people living in poor countries, safe water sources are often not an option. In order to eliminate the risk of disease, people prefer to use bottled water, or even bottle beverages, considering them uncontaminated, sterile products. However, the evidence showed that some microbial species belonging to autochthonous water microbiota or even pathogenic species may contaminate and could, in certain conditions, multiply beyond measure in the bottled products. Sometimes, although the bottled water or beverages meet the quality requirements, still, they could be responsible by some water- or food-borne diseases. This chapter presents the main microbial contaminants of these products and the associated risk for waterborne/food-borne diseases.