Characterization of some bottled Romanian mineral waters on the basis of the total mineral content

Abstract Romania has many mineral water sources due to its geological features. In the present study, bottles of 26 Romanian mineral water brands were purchased from the market to make a characterization based on the pH, conductivity, and fixed residue content. Focusing on the total fixed residue, the distribution of low, medium, and highly mineralized water was 43.9%, 41.46%, and 14.63% respectively. The mean of fixed residue concentration was 763.3 mg/L, ranging from 40.37 mg/L to 2,603 mg/L. The pH values of the still mineral waters varied between 6.86 and 7.91, while the pH values of the sparkling mineral waters were the lowest (4.7). The conductivity was strongly related to the concentration of the ions, so the maximum measured conductivity for the still waters was 573 μS/cm, for the partially sparkling waters 2,133 μS/cm, and for the sparkling mineral waters 3,079 μS/cm. The chemical composition of the mineral waters was highly dependent on the rock types. Using the hierarchical cluster analysis, two different clusters were detected according to the main characteristics of mineral waters.