Open AccessMicrobial evaluation of bottled water marketed in North India
Author(s) -
Bhawna Sharma,
Swaran Kaur
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
indian journal of public health/indian journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.381
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 2229-7693
pISSN - 0019-557X
DOI - 10.4103/0019-557x.169660
Subject(s) - bottled water , antibiotics , total viable count , diarrhea , coliform bacteria , fecal coliform , toxicology , veterinary medicine , plate count , biology , bacteria , food science , microbiology and biotechnology , medicine , environmental science , water quality , environmental engineering , ecology , genetics
Drinking unsafe and unhygienic water can cause waterborne diseases such as diarrhea and typhoid. The present study describes the microbial evaluation of bottled water sold in North India. The samples were analyzed for total viable count and coliforms and susceptibility to different antibiotics. Though free of coliforms, the samples had a total viable count ranging from 0.01 × 10 (1) cfu/mL to 2.40 × 10 (3) cfu/mL and in 17% of the samples, total viable count was much higher than specified by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), Government of India. Among the samples, 6.5% also showed fungal growth. On checking the sensitivity of bacteria isolates to different antibiotics, most of the strains were found to be resistant to a number of antibiotics. It can thus be concluded that the consumption of bottled water with a high viable count and that was bacteria-resistant to different antibiotics may have an effect on the health of the consumers, especially immune-compromised individuals.