Bottled Water Recalls That Affected Millions

When looking for a clean drink, many people reach for a bottled water. After all, it has to be cleaner than tap water, or why would they put beautiful mountain streams on the labels? And that is definitely working, as U.S.

consumers spent 48 billion dollars on the stuff in 2023. But while your water may look cleaner, most bottled water companies use filtered water from the same municipal sources as tap water. And if you don't like , as a recent study found microplastics in three leading bottled water brands.

Also, tap water is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which requires municipal water sources to notify the public when a contaminants are found, while bottled waters are covered by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), which doesn't require bottlers to inform the public of any contamination, apart from listing them as ingredients. Which is why the public may not hear about any contamination unless the FDA or bottler issues a public recall. And FDA recall notices have listed contaminants such as known carcinogens like bromate and arsenic, but also far more disgusting possibilities like So, to spread the word, here's a list of some of the biggest bottled recalls to hit store shelves that you still might not have heard about.

Berkeley Club Beverages In September 2024, West-Virginia-based Berkeley Club Beverages recalled 1,034 bottles of its "Berkeley Springs Water Purified" and "Berkeley Springs Water Distilled" for the presence of coliform bacteria. While the FDA's initial report listed the recall as including more that 150,000 bottles, it looks like that was a typo, as the FDA later released a corrected and much lower number. Coliforms are a type of bacteria found in the digestive tracts of animals and are typically found in their feces.

The best known example of these is and diarrhea. And while many other coliforms don't cause disease, they're easy to test for, so they're often used as a way to detect other, harder-to-test-for types of contamination. So, harmful or not, you really don't want them in your water.

The recall was for 1and 5-gallon bottles of the "Berkeley Springs Water Purified" and "Berkeley Springs Water Distilled" brands, which were sold in Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. This one was classified by the FDA as a "Class III" recall, the least dangerous kind, which the agency describes as " " Fiji Natural Artesian Water Bottles In March 2024, 1.9 million bottles of Fiji water bottles were voluntarily recalled due to high levels of manganese and bacteria.

The recall covered over 78,000 cases of Fiji 24-packs sold on Amazon between February 1, 2024 and March 3, 2024. Buyers were initially notified by Amazon, (formerly Twitter), "The notice sent by Amazon does not accurately reflect the issue. We were notified of a quality issue with complaints of discoloration in select product with PRD dates of Nov.

11, 12, 13, 2023, and Nov. 24, 25, 2023." The company , "FIJI Water remains safe to buy and consume.

" Manganese is a metal that's necessarily for good health in trace amounts, and is found naturally in grains, beans and nuts. But large amounts of the metal can cause a Parkinson's-like condition called "Manganism," which affects the nervous system and causes tremors, difficulty walking, and facial muscle spasms. that the bacteria were "nonpathogenic and nonharmful," which explains why this was another one of the FDA's low-risk "Class III recalls.

" Waiakea Hawaiian Volcanic Water In November 2023, the FDA recalled 3,850 cases of Waiakea Hawaiian Volcanic Water 1-liter bottles due to customer complaints of unidentified "floating particles" in the water. According to the , customer complaints described the particles with terms like "mold", "white blob", and "floaters." An inspection of the plant's water found mold and the bacteria pseudomonas aeruginosa.

And this one was apparently more serious than the previous two examples, as the the it a Class II classification, which describes "a situation in which use of, or exposure to, a violative product may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote." The affected bottles were part of the Waiakea Hawaiian Volcanic Water Naturally Alkaline Electrolytes Deep Well Water line and were distributed in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Michigan, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, and Colorado. Real Alkalized Water In March 2021, Arizona-based Real Water, Inc.

issued a voluntary recall of all sizes of Real Water, after it was linked to instances of non-viral hepatitis which were reported in Las Vegas during November 2020. The FDA ruled this one a Class I recall, indicating that there's a "reasonable probability that the use of, or exposure to, a violative product will cause serious adverse health consequences or death." The FDA reported that symptoms included "fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, dark urine, clay or gray-colored bowel movements, joint pain, yellow eyes, and jaundice.

" The company was shut down and subsequently went bankrupt, although they were still sued by customers who drank the water. Their lawyers argued that the water was contaminated with hydrazine, a carcinogen that's used to treat water boilers and in rocket fuel. In 2023 and 2024, victims won three different awards against the company, which totaled over 8.

4 billion dollars in damages. Peñafiel Mineral Spring Water (Keurig Dr. Pepper) In June 2019, Keurig Dr.

Pepper recalled all bottles of its Mexican Peñafiel Mineral Spring Water after the company found excessive levels of arsenic. The recall followed a series of articles by Consumer Reports that found levels of arsenic that were almost . The Peñafiel brand is a popular brand in Mexico, where it's manufactured by Grupo Peñafiel, a subsidiary of Keurig Dr Pepper.

At the time, the company released a statement on its website, saying "Arsenic is found in nature, including in aquifers that are the source of mineral water and where levels can vary over time. Keurig Dr Pepper has recently installed enhanced filtration systems at its facilities that produce Peñafiel, and the product is now being produced is well within regulatory guidelines." The water is still for sale in Mexico and the U.

S. In October 2019, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Keurig Dr. Pepper over the contamination, but it was ultimately dismissed by the judge for lack of standing.

Starkey Water (Whole Foods) In 2016 and 2017, Whole Foods recalled more than 2,000 cases of its "Starkey Water" brand after tests showed levels of arsenic exceeding the federal limit of 10 parts per billion, with testing by the FDA showing 11.7 ppb. In a health evaluation sent to the company, the FDA noted that the "main adverse effects reported to be associated with long-term ingestion of inorganic arsenic in humans are cancer, skin lesions, cardiovascular disease, neurodevelopmental toxicity, adverse pregnancy outcomes, and diabetes.

" Surprisingly, a again found high levels of arsenic in the water, ranging from 9.48 ppb to 10.1 ppb, roughly of other bottled brands.

At the time, Consumer Reports chief scientific officer James Dickerson reported that the levels in a single bottle of Starkey Water probably would not harm you, "But regular consumption of even small amounts of the heavy metal over extended periods increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, certain cancers, and lower IQ scores in children, and poses other health issues as well." Niagara Bottling Company In 2015, the California-based Niagara Bottling company (the secret manufacturer of ) recalled 14 different bottled water brands after a water source was potentially contaminated with E. coli bacteria.

The recalled bottles all came from two Pennsylvania-based plants in Hamburg and Allentown. The brands affected included "Acadia, Acme, Big Y, Best Yet, 7-Eleven, Niagara, Nature's Place, Pricerite, Superchill, Morning Fresh, Shaws, ShopRite, Western Beef Blue, and Wegmans." The company reported that it had notified by the Department of Environmental Control and the Department of Agriculture of a positive test result at the source it used, Far Away Springs, and stopped using them.

The springs, however, disputed the claim, saying that while it may have had a bad test, every sample that was tested at the receiving plant was perfect. The president of Far Away Springs, Stan Frompovicz, that the water had never tested positive for E. coli in the eight years that he'd been working there.

There were no reports of consumers getting sick from the water. Ethos Water (Starbucks) In 2005, Starbucks recalled of over 4.1 million bottles of their Ethos Bottled Water after a supplier's tests showed levels of bromate above federal limits.

The recall affected 14 Western states (Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Arizona, California, Nevada, Texas, Idaho, New Mexico, Utah, Alaska, Oklahoma, Montana and Wyoming), while the rest of the country was unaffected as they were covered by different suppliers. Bromate is a carcinogen that's formed when ozone used to disinfect drinking water combines with Bromine, an element that's naturally found in source water. Symptoms of ingesting large amounts of bromate include gastrointestinal problems, such as vomiting, diarrhea, nausea and abdominal pain.

Exposure to large levels of bromate have caused kidney problems in lab animals and cancer in rats, however it isn't known if it has the same effect on humans. Starbucks reported that the affected water was destroyed and replacement water was shipped from other suppliers to cover the loss until they could find a new supplier. UK Dasani Water (Coca-Cola) In 2004, Coca-cola recalled around 500,000 bottles of Dasani water in the U.

K. for elevated levels of Bromate. The timing couldn't have been worse, as while the brand was the most popular bottled water brand in the U.

S., they'd only just introduced Dasani into the U.K.

with the unfortunate description of "one of the purest waters around." ( .) A Coke spokeswoman , "In very, very large quantities (bromate) can affect your health but we have been advised by the FSA that the levels of bromate that have been detected in Dasani do not pose an immediate health risk.

" Coke wasn't ordered to make the recall, but did so voluntarily. The U.K.

's Food Safety Agency issued a statement saying, "Coca-Cola has advised the agency that they are immediately withdrawing the product from sale. This is a sensible measure by the company as bromate is a chemical that could cause an increased cancer risk as a result of long-term exposure, although there is no immediate risk to public health." The brand had already faced criticism in the country after it was discovered that it was using a municipal water source.

And for an advertising campaign that described Dasani as "full of spunk," which overlooked that spunk is a British slang for semen. In the end, Coca-Cola ended up removing Dasani from the U.K.

market and cancelling a planned expansion into Europe. Perrier Sparkling Water In 1990, Perrier had one of the largest water recalls in history when it discovered elevated levels of Benzine in their U.S.

stock, prompting the company to recall and destroy 160 million bottles at a cost of $250 million dollars. Benzine is a naturally occurring chemical often found in crude oil and gasoline, and a human carcinogen. The sample was found in Perrier's North Carolina bottling plant, which found that Perrier samples had roughly five times the federal limits for the chemical, which is 5 parts per billion.

But while the water was above legal limits, the head of the FDA, James Benson, was quick to say that the water wasn't particularly dangerous. In fact, Benson , "If I had a bottle in the refrigerator, I would drink it" And that a lifetime of drinking this level of benzene every day would only increase your chance of cancer by around one in a million. An internal investigation later blamed the contamination on a faulty filter.

And while Perrier spent hundreds of millions on the recall, it's hard to calculate how much money it also lost due to bad press, as the company dropped from a 15% market share in the U.S. to just 9%.

And that was one of the contributing factors to the company being bought by Nestle, two years later. Pocono Artesian Waters In 1990, around 7,000 bottles of Pocono Artesian Waters were recalled after buyers complained of a foul smell, which they described as something like kerosene or petroleum. According to the company, 30 customers called to complain, with several saying they'd suffered diarrhea after drinking the water.

And a Delaware woman who drank an 8-ounce glass of the water was admitted to a hospital after complaining of chest pains. However, after the recall, the company said that testing hadn't shown any contamination, with president Carl Petro , "The laboratory has certified our water is naturally pure and free of all contaminants." And later tests by SmithKline laboratories and the FDA found no contamination in samples of their water.

The company blamed the smell on the plastic bottles the water was packaged with. But Rolf Weingardt, president of Leffler Systems of New Jersey, Inc. , "Frankly, we're quite surprised by this, and the fact that they are blaming this on us" and adding that thirty other companies used that same type of bottle, but had no complaints about any smell.

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