What is the difference between purified water and bottled mineral water?

The kind of water we drink, at least in India, largely comes down to two options: bottled mineral water and purified water. Bottled mineral water is the type you buy in a store, and purified water is usually what you get in your home via a water purifier of some kind. Some households might also choose to boil their water. 

What’s the difference between these water sources though? And are they all equally safe and beneficial for us? Read on. 

Bottled water and bottled mineral water

To get one misconception out of the way, one thing we’d like to clarify at the start, is that any kind of water that is available in a bottle can be called bottled water. You could bottle tap water and sell it and sell it as bottled water. 

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Bottled mineral water is generally assumed to be water that contains essential minerals and elements after being purified and filtered. You could also get natural mineral water – available from natural springs and similar sources – sold in bottles as bottled mineral water. Depending on the filtration process and certification, the latter may or not be safer or healthier than regular bottled mineral water or purified water. 

Bottled mineral water

For now, we’ll focus on commercially available bottled mineral water of the type you can buy in most stores in India.  

This type of water is filtered and purified i.e. cleaned of all impurities including dissolved chemicals like chlorine, softening hard water, killing and filtering all microorganisms, and more. The process is quite long and complicated and involves 100+ filtration and purification steps. After this is done, essential minerals are reintroduced in a proportion that is healthy for human consumption. 

In addition, commercially available bottled mineral water must comply with government standards for water quality, purity, and dissolved mineral percentages. 

Bottled mineral water from a reputed brand is generally safe and reliable, and perfectly fit for consumption. However, there is an environmental cost to bottled mineral water in the form of transport costs and heavy use of plastics. 

Purified water

Any water that is purified, i.e. cleaned of all impurities is called purified water. Bottled mineral water is also purified water, except that the purification process is happening at a commercial level. 

Water purification at home can happen using reverse osmosis (RO) filters, microfiltration, regular filters, or some other kind of filtration setup. Of these, the RO process is generally the most thorough and closest to commercial filtration in quality. As with commercial filtration processes, the RO process also removes all foreign elements from water, including healthy minerals. Good home filters generally re-introduce these essential minerals and elements into the water to make the purified water healthier to consume. 

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The environmental costs here come in the form of wastage – the RO process, for example, wastes a lot of water – and power consumption.  

On a side note, boiled water isn’t the same as purified water. While the boiling process kills all harmful microorganisms, it neither filters out suspended particulates nor does it remove chemical compounds and harmful minerals. 

Both bottled mineral water and purified water containing essential minerals are equally safe to consume. Never consume water straight from the tap or public water source without first, at the very least, boiling and filtering it. Ideally, you would want a proper water purification setup for a continuous supply of good quality drinking water.