Excessive levels of bacteria found in 23% of bottled water in China

China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA), the country’s top safety supervisor, has found almost a quarter of purified drinking water from major drinking water companies (such as Wahaha, Robust and C’estbon) contain excessive levels of bacteria.

CFDA carried out tests on 2,088 batches of purified drinking water during the latter half of 2014.

Nearly 23% of the tested potable water failed due to the presence of excess bacteria, reports Shanghai Daily.

Around 160 CFU (colony-forming units) were found in drinking water barrels from Wahaha, which were packaged in Hebei Province in July and sold in Beijing. CFU is the number of viable bacteria or fungal cells found in a sample.

China maintains a permissible limit of 20 CFU, the Chinese newspaper reported.

Potable water barrels from the company Robust reportedly contained 120 CFU per millilitre, while C’estbon barrels were found to contain 29,000 CFU per millilitre.

Beijing and Hebei Food and Drug Administration announced a process to prevent the sale of all the bottled water and refunds have been given to customers, reports Shanghai Daily.

The Chinese population chiefly relies on boiled water or bottled and barreled water for drinking, since waterways in the nation are highly polluted, reports Reuters.