How the hell does my bottled drinking water have an expiration date?

[flvegan]

I stocked up on gallon bottles of drinking water before the hurricane season. I just moved one of the bottles, and it expires end of January. Expires? It's water! Water with a 6 month shelf life. I weep for this country.

[ghostsofgiants]

1. A way to trick morons into buying more water, I would guess.

[flvegan]

2. Aha! I have yet to buy more water.

Trick might be on them.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

3. It has to do with the plastic breaking down and leeaching into the water

[flvegan]

5. Put a friggin man on the moon, but we can't contain water properly.

Why do we use such shitty product? Sigh.

[Sebastian Doyle]

17. Glass bottles would last longer.

The water would also taste better and glass recycles. Of course it also weighs a ton, which might be problematic, depending on how you have your storage set up.

[DarkTirade]

24. As someone who was too cheap to buy glass bottles when I started homebrewing...

this doesn't surprise me at all.

[Mike 03]

4. That doesn't sound right.

Most of the bottled water I have in storage was purchased in 2003-2004, and it expired in general in two to three years, but I can tell you that it tastes fine four to five years later.

I think it might have to do with the length of time the water is exposed to the plastic. Also, if you live where it's very hot, the heat needs to be considered because it can leach plastic chemicals into the water.

Edit: changed spelling of "storage"

[flvegan]

6. So the consensus is the plastic.

If it's only safe for six months, I can't imagine it's safe at all.

[supernova]

8. PETE

Category 1 recycling bottles.

The PETE polymer isn't stable and was not meant for long term use. It really is only a temporary container. One or two uses at most and then it's meant to be chucked. Dumb, but that's what they do. I've stopped buying them trying to save them to reuse.

[Mike 03]

10. Yeah, most likely. If you are right, I'm screwed, because I cycle my water bottles, and

they go back years, so on any given day, I'm drinking the oldest bottle of water in my garage!

Great...

[Runcible Spoon]

16. dammit ya beat me to it lol

[gmoney]

7. might also be that bacteria multiply

They can't get water 100% pure, but pure enough to be healthy... but if the impurities have months and months to multiply, they might get to the point where it could make some people sick. And that may be just a remote chance, so they put the expiration on there to cover themselves.

Might also have to do with the plastic to some extent... again, the amount that leaches into the water in a few weeks could be within safe limits, but after months in hot garages or cold basements or whatnot, they can't guarantee what will happen.

Use it to water your plants, or wash your clothes or your car, or even fill the toilet tank or something. Don't just dump it down the drain.

[Jamastiene]

28. Not only bacteria, but anaerobic bacteria, which is just plain stinky and nasty.

Ick. :puke:

[LeftyMom]

9. Bacteria?

Since it's filtered water and doesn't have an chlorine or anything like that in it, and since the seals aren't exactly perfect I would assume there's some concern that it's eventually going to wind up being microbial disneyland.

[applegrove]

11. If that bottled water has been filtered of chlorine it has nothing in it to fight

microbes. It could be dangerous. You wouldn't even drink chlorinated water that was 6 months old so relax. Someone is looking after your health.

[KamaAina]

12. After six months, it turns into wine

:evilgrin:

[Sebastian Doyle]

18. No, that's only if you buy it from Jesus

And I don't think He spends a lot of time in Florida (or they wouldn't have so damn many hurricanes!)

[Haole Girl]

13. They all expire in Jan. huh?

Well, you better start drinking!

:rofl:

[flvegan]

14. Ok, but I'm blaming my drinking on you.

[Runcible Spoon]

15. my spidey sense tingled and suggested...

that the plastic bottles are made with a cheap plastic that releases noxious chemicals into the water when exposed to sunlight for a certain amount of time....

I read somewhere that's why runners etc. bought Nalgene because the composition doesn't leach chemicals...

[jberryhill]

19. It's the same date on all of them -

End of the Mayan calendar.


(seriously, though, if it is non-chlorinated water, there is still bacteria growing in it)

[txwhitedove]

20. Why buy water? I save big bottles and fill with water the night before

a hurricane. Afterward, if we didn't have to drink/cook with the bottled water,
I use it for pets or to water plants.

:-)

[pokerfan]

21. spores

Some bacteria form spores which are virtually indestructible and can last for years. The only way to make totally sterile drinks would be to irradiate them, which wouldn't make them radioactive, but would make them cost a great deal of money to produce.

[Chan790]

22. How?

Because somebody gave it one...I think the question you seek is "Why does my bottled water have an expiration date?"

Because by law it has to. That is so contamination can be limited if improperly sealed or stored.

[csziggy]

23. The water we had left over after Fay came through, I froze

If I had planned ahead, I would have had gallons of water frozen already. Usually I keep five or six gallons of water in old milk jugs in the freezer but I did not plan ahead when Fay hit. We lost power for several days and used up what water we had on hand so I bought a couple of gallons of drinking water to use.

The frozen jugs do two things - keep the frozen food solid longer and if we need the water to drink we can take it out and let it thaw. We've also used them when transporting food instead of buying ice.

If my freezer gets overfull of food, I take the extra water jugs out and discard them if I don't need them.

[nadine_mn]

25. Its not the water... its the plastic

at some point the plastic will break down and your water will taste like.. well tap water

[krispos42]

26. Perhaps water in glass bottles would be a better long-term choice.

I don't know if stores sell them in glass, but you could probably "can" your own with canning jars and wax seals.


I guess boil it so it's germ-free, pour it into a canning jar, then seal it up tight.





But I've never canned anything so...






Hmmm... you've just reminded me that I have bottled water I keep for emergencies as well, and it's about 6 months old.

[Jamastiene]

29. Botulinum and other pathenogenic anaerobic bacteria could build up.

That's probably not a good idea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaerobic_bacteria#Fermentative_anaerobes

[krispos42]

30. Hmmmm...

...then I guess the only solution would be to add a dollup of bleach to each jar after you canned it to kill whatever's left in there.



Or can the water in canning jars then zap it with a UV light source.



Bleah, now it's getting hard.

[1]

27. Q: Does bottled water ever go bad?

A: Like all packaged food and drink, bottled water is regulated by the FDA, whose position is that there’s no limit on its shelf life (provided it was bottled and stored properly).

So why does bottled water have an expiration date? Blame New Jersey. A 1987 law in that state required all foods (legally, water is a food) sold in New Jersey to display an expiration date of two years or less from their date of manufacture. Because it would be inefficient to make separately labeled batches of product just for New Jersey, most bottled water producers began stamping their products with a two-year expiration date, says Stephen Kay, vice president of communications for the International Bottled Water Association. A bill repealing the requirement was signed into law in early 2006, but many large retailers like Wal-Mart now insist on expiration dates.

That doesn’t mean, however, that the bottles you’ve been storing in your basement for the Apocalypse will taste the same as those you bought last week. The plastic (high-density polyethylene, or HDPE) that makes up most bottles is slightly porous, which means the water inside can pick up smells and tastes from its environment. “The bottles are … not hermetically sealed,” Kay says. A few months or years in a musty basement will result in musty-tasting, but not unsafe, water. “I’m not aware of any issue that would make them nonconsumable,” says Dr. Sam Beattie, a food safety extension specialist at Iowa State University. But just to be cautious, you probably shouldn’t store your bottled water (or, for that matter, anything you intend to consume) near gasoline, paint, or other noxious chemicals.

As your bottles sit, there may be some migration of chemicals from the plastic into the water, but FDA spokesman Mike Herndon says the levels are “well within the margin of safety.” You may have heard about health problems caused by plastic leaching into water from bottles. However, that applies to containers that have a high percentage of polycarbonate (like many of the hard bottles people buy at camping stores to use over and over), not HDPE or PET (polyethylene terephthalate, another popular water bottle plastic).