Commercialization conditions and practices influence the microbiological quality of mineral waters.

The objective of the present study was to determine the microbiological quality of bottled mineral water marketed in commercial establishments and by street vendors and to evaluate the influence of the storage and maintenance conditions on the microbiological quality of the product. Ten samples from the same batches of five different brands of water were analyzed, for a total of 50 samples. Of the five brands analyzed, only one (brand A), when collected in a commercial establishment, complied with the legal Brazilian standards for mineral water with respect to the presence of total coliforms, fecal coliforms, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The remaining samples failed to comply with these microbiological standards for at least one of the parameters evaluated. The water samples obtained from street vendors were inferior in microbiological quality to samples from the same batch that were obtained from commercial establishments.