The key to a tasteful drink and beverage starts simply from water. The composition of water in a typical carbonated soft drink (CSD) is an estimated 90% (98% for sugar free drinks). As such, the quality of water is critical on the taste, appearance, physical and microbiological stability of the product.

There are more than 50 legal quality standards ensuring the safety of drinking water. However, outside of these standards, trace amounts of various elements can directly affect taste. Some possible effects of this can be illustrated:

Water should have no impurities of any nature or kind to interfere with taste, colour, physical appearance and carbonation of the drink. Bottling plants use various equipments and techniques to remove impurities and standardize the water quality.

The minimum water requirement used for drinks and beverages are:

• free from high levels of elements and mineral salts;
• free from tastes and odours;
• free from organic material;
• free from dissolved oxygen;
• free from micro-organisms (aka sterile);
• clear and colourless.

The treated water in bottling plants should be tested for:

• Conductivity,
• Turbidity;
• Microbiological levels;
• Taste, odour and appearance;
• Hardness: soft (<50 pp, as CaCO3) to medium soft (50–100 ppm as CaCO3);
• Alkalinity (< 50 ppm of total dissolved solids) and chlorine-free;
• Total mineral solids: < 350 ppm; free from iron, sulfur, manganese etc.

[ecm name=’table blogs left’]