Bottled water has made life extremely convenient. You don’t need to treat or boil water. You just need to crack open a water bottle and chug it down. Drinking water delivery services have made this even easier as you get water delivered to your home. But, does bottled water go bad after some time? Well, here are the things to know.
Bottled Water & Expiration
Water is an essential thing for living. It quenches your thirst and hydrates you from the inside. However, with different types of water and just like anything you eat or consume, you might think of a question: Does water go bad?
This is something that a lot of people have apprehension over and this is alarming if you’re drinking water that can be expired or bad. We already know that eating or drinking anything that is over the expiration date isn’t good for the body. So, what about water?
Well, you’ll be happy to know that bottled water doesn’t go bad. It is not a certain type of food or beverage with additives in it that can go bad. This is a gift from nature that water tends to taste the same even after years pass. Think of all the oceans and rivers in the world. More or less, they have the same taste as they had years ago.
The taste of water is only altered when certain impurities get mixed in it. This is why the taste and smell of water change when there is a chemical addition or just a mixing of any other foreign thing in it. Other than that, water doesn’t go bad. It can last forever and you can drink it whenever you please.
Bottled water is very safe and clean for consumption and even though there are expiration dates written on the bottle at times, it’s typically only protocol and if you’re in a pinch, then you can drink the water and nothing bad will happen.
Things To Look Out For In Bottled Water
Now that it’s established that bottled water isn’t going to go bad, here are some things that are good to keep in the back of your mind, whenever you’re buying a bottle of water or if you’re using it after a long time.
Check The Seal
The first thing that you need to check is whether the seal on the water bottle is intact or not. The seal is a guarantee of freshness and you want to ensure that the seal of the bottle is not broken or tampered with because then, you don’t want to drink this type of water.
It won’t expire necessarily, but there might be exposure of foreign organisms and you don’t want to drink that water at all, because it can cause a lot of problems.
Look For Any Cloudiness
The next thing you want to look for when you’re drinking a bottle of water, after a long time of it sitting around, is cloudiness. Sometimes, if there is any invasion of impurities in the water, then clear water can turn murky and cloudy.
This indicates the presence of heavy metals in the water and you don’t want to drink it at all, because the taste and smell will be altered. The water hasn’t expired, rather it has been exposed to a lot of sunlight or the plastic is causing the water to turn murky.
Does The Water Have A Weird Smell?
If the seal of the water bottle is open and the water is exposed to the environment, it can have a really bad smell and it can lead to you thinking that it has gone bad. Well, that’s not entirely the case. Although you don’t want to drink water that has a bad smell at all, you still want to know why the water is smelly.
Well, this can be because the water was stored in a closed space with no ventilation and this can cause a musty and fish-like smell to penetrate in the water and make it smell really bad. This is why you should never accept a water bottle that has a broken seal.
If you can’t find any good water bottle brands or delivery services, you can install a water filtration system Meadville in your house for clean and fresh water.
Is The Plastic Good Quality?
Speaking of plastic, bottled water usually comes packaged in some sort of plastic. This is something that can contaminate the water too and it can cause it to become undrinkable.
The plastic used in packaging water bottles should be BPA-free and it also shouldn’t melt into the water, because that’s bad and you’ll be drinking polymers of plastic along with water, which isn’t pleasant at all.
How To Store Bottled Water
Bottled water is convenient and all that, but to make it taste the same even after a long time, then here are some bottled water storage tips you need to know.
Keep It In A Cool Place
Bottled water should be kept in a cool and dry place at all times. If you have a refrigerator with lots of space to store many bottles, then that’s perfect. However, if you don’t, then the next best thing to do in this case is to find a cool, ventilated, and shaded area and place the water bottles there, with their seals intact. This is going to ensure that the bottled water remains fresh, whenever you crack it open.
Don’t Open Until Use
This is also something that you need to take care of, especially if you’re not going to drink the water right away. You want to open the water bottle only when you want to drink it. Even though bottled water doesn’t necessarily expire, you still don’t want to keep unsealed water out in the open.
This is going to alter the taste and smell of water and you won’t like it at all. So, whenever you want to drink water, that is when you want to open a new bottle.
Keep It Away From Sunlight
Sunlight isn’t good for water at all, especially bottled water that is stored in plastic bottles. You want to ensure that you’re keeping bottled water away from direct sunlight because too much heat can change the composition of plastic and this can allow the polymers to dissolve in the water and that isn’t healthy for you at all.
So, keep the water in a cool place, preferably the refrigerator or freezer or a dry place with ventilation but no sunlight. You’ll thank yourself in the future for doing this.
Consume Within Two Years
Even though you can keep bottled water as it is for years to come, it’s still recommended that you drink the water within two years of the manufacturing date.
This is just a safe time window in which nothing bad will happen to the water, but you still want to be on the safe side of things, especially wherever your body is concerned. You can still drink the water after the two-year mark, but it’s fresher within that time.
Conclusion
Bottled water, or any water for that matter, doesn’t get spoiled with time. However, if it gets mixed up with different impurities, then that’s a different case in itself. When subscribing to a bottled water home delivery Erie service, make sure a good reputation for delivering fresh and sealed water bottles of top-quality brands.