Microbial analysis of bottled drinking water sold in the markets

Six brands of bottled drinking water sold in the market were studied. Ten samples of each brand were collected and analyzed for the heterotrophic microbial counts and for the presence of coliform organisms. The colony forming units per milliliter (cfu/ml.) and the most probable number per hundred milliliter (MFN/100mL) of the water samples were determined. The results showed that one of the six brands of bottled water did not conform with the microbial standard imposed by the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) for bottled water in terms of its heterotrophic plate count. Three out of 10 samples of this brand were shown to have more than 10 but less than 10 cfu/mL. All other brands conformed with the BFAD standard for heterotrophic microbial count with values ranging from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 2,767 cfu/mL and coliform count 2 MPN/100 mL