Assessment of concentrations of anions in bottled natural mineral waters from the Turkish market in accordance with national and international standards

Abstract

In this study, the concentrations of anions (fluoride, nitrite, nitrate, sulphite, sulphate, oxalate, and phosphate) in bottlednatural plain and fruit-flavoured mineral waters of twenty-one commerciallybrandssold in Turkish markets were determined by using an ion chromatography (IC) system to assessthe suitability of their chemical quality according to national and international regulations.The phosphate concentrationsanalysed in all bottled natural mineral water samples are below the detection limit. Results revealed that the nitrite and sulphite concentrations analysed in most bottled natural mineral water samples were higher than the maximum permissibleconcentrations of 0.1 and 0.05 mg L-1, respectively, and other anion concentrations are within the maximum permissible limits.