What is the difference between spring water and mineral water?
The similarities between spring water and mineral water.
Both spring water and mineral water are extracted from underground springs. These springs are not connected to groundwater. It is not allowed to "treat"
spring water or mineral water, for example, heating or aerating it.
In addition, both must be of drinking water quality and the sources must be approved by the Ministry of Health. So quite a list of requirements, but what exactly is the difference?
The differences between spring water and mineral water
The main difference between spring water and mineral water is the way it is packaged. Mineral water is packaged immediately after it is extracted from underground springs into bottles or cartons. Spring water, on the other hand, is first transported in bulk and only later packaged. However, this is not the only difference.
Mineral water has several other characteristics that the water must meet. These characteristics are mainly about the substances that must be present in the water: the composition of the minerals.
Are you drinking enough water?
It is important to drink enough water. In fact, an adult body consists of about 50 to 65% water. An important part of this is in our blood
and in our brain. Our blood consists of about 92% water and our brain 80%. The water in our body ensures that nutrients are transported to the cells and that waste products are disposed of.
Furthermore, with the help of water we regulate our body temperature and strengthen our immune system. In short, drinking enough water is very important for humans. Here you can read how much water you can drink per day.
Do you sometimes find it difficult to drink enough water every day? It helps to always have a bottle of water with you. That way you will never face any surprises. A perfect solution is a stainless steel water bottle, for example. This way you always have chilled water with you, and it's also much better for the environment than plastic bottles.
What is natural mineral water?
In addition to spring water and mineral water, there is also natural mineral water. Before water may be called such, it must meet additional requirements. The mineral water must contain a content of minerals, trace elements or other constituents that give the water a "therapeutic value" or "beneficial effect.
This composition of minerals must be determined in detail. Also, almost nothing may be added or removed in the water.
Why not just tap water?
Sometimes things still want to go wrong with spring water or mineral water. For example, the French government once advised to change brands regularly when drinking spring water or mineral water. This is because some brands are incredibly high in minerals.
For example, one liter of Slovenian water brand Rogaska contains as much as 1070mg of magnesium, while the recommended daily allowance is around 300mg. In addition, the standards that packaged spring water or mineral water must meet are lower than those of tap water in the Netherlands, for example. So we have stricter standards for our tap water, even though the quality of all three is often good.
Kitty Nijmeijer of the University of Twente explained in a lecture hall that it is better to drink tap water than mineral water. With the help of membrane filters, she showed how seemingly polluted water could be transformed into wonderfully pure drinking water.
Wondering how Zereau Drinks | KRNWTR+ can help you with unlimited filtered, chilled and sparkling water in the office, school or hospitality industry?
The facts at a glance:
● For 1 bottle of spring water, you need 0.25 liters of oil and 3 liters of water. In addition, to produce water bottles, you need about 2.7 tons of plastic every year.
That's a whopping 2.5% of global oil production.
● Spring water causes much more CO2 emissions. Due to production, packaging and transportation, spring water creates 500 times more CO2 emissions than the same
amount of spring water. For example, one glass bottle of spring water creates 450 grams of CO2 emissions. That is more than the emissions per kilometer of a Hummer!
● Small plastic bottles are only 20% recycled in the Netherlands. The rest ends up in landfills or in an incinerator. In other countries, the plastic waste is thrown into the sea, resulting in a huge plastic mountain in the Pacific Ocean also called the Great Pacific Garbadge Patch.
● Plastic waste threatens more than 914 different animal species. Turtles appear to be especially vulnerable. From the moment they crawl out of the egg, they are
vulnerable. On the way from the beach to the sea, they can already ingest plastic.
● You pay 500 to 1,000 times more for bottled water than for tap water. For an average of 15 euro cents you get 100 liters of tap water in the Netherlands. And we
sometimes pay as much as 65 euro cents for 500 ml in the Albert Heijn supermarket.
● Multinationals such as Evian, Spa and Perrier own the largest (ground) water sources. So there are big financial interests involved in selling spring water. Moreover, they extract more water from the ground than can be replenished naturally. Thus, ecosystems can be disrupted more quickly.
