How do I know my bottled water is safe?

Consumers can trust that bottled water is safe for many reasons. The first is that bottled water is strictly regulated on the federal level by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and on the state level by state officials. This ensures that all bottled water sold in the United States meets these stringent standards. In addition, members of the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA), who produce about 85% of the bottled water sold in the United States, must meet strict industry standards established by the association. These standards, contained in the IBWA "Model Code," exceed the FDA regulations currently in place for bottled water.

To ensure that all their bottled water is as safe as possible and of the highest quality, all IBWA members use one or more of the following practices: source protection and monitoring, reverse osmosis, distillation, filtration, ozonation and disinfection.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), bottled water has never been responsible for an outbreak of waterborne illness.