title: The bacteriological quality of different brands of bottled water available to consumers in Ile-Ife, south-western Nigeria.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The upsurge in the demand for bottled water has prompted the interest of many manufacturers in the production of bottled water and very many water bottling companies are therefore involved in its production. These range from large scale multinational companies to medium scale business enterprises, institutional and government business investment companies as well as small scale entrepreneurs. There is however little information on the comparative quality of bottled water brands produced by different classes of water bottling companies in Nigeria. This study was undertaken to determine the bacteriological quality of brands of bottled water available to consumers in Ile-Ife.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-three samples of bottled water comprising of three batches each of thirteen bottled water brands and two batches of two brands were purchased and analyzed for total bacterial count, presence of coliform and the presence of other bacterial indicators of drinking water quality.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Only 67.4% of the water samples representing the products of 10 companies or 66.7% of the brands had heterotrophic counts within the acceptable limits. Coliforms present in 100 ml of water were detected in 26.7% of the bottled water brands. Other indicator organisms detected included Staphylococci isolated from 27.9% of the samples (33.3% of the brands) and specifically Staphylococcus aureus found in four brands constituting 14% of the samples. Pseudomonas strains were consistently detected in consecutive batches of three brands of the water samples.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Bottled water samples produced by the large scale multinational producers were of acceptable bacteriological quality unlike those produced by most small companies.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is need for a greater control of water bottling processes carried out by commercial bottled water producers in Nigeria.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutics, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. oaigbene@oauife.edu.ng.
authors.forename: Oluwatoyin A
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Igbeneghu
authors.forename: Adebayo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lamikanra
mesh_terms: D058491:Bacterial Load; D002954:Citrobacter / Q000302:isolation & purification; D003257:Consumer Product Safety / Q000592:standards*; D060766:Drinking Water / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000592:standards*; D004754:Enterobacter / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004755:Enterobacteriaceae / Q000302:isolation & purification; D009549:Nigeria; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000302:isolation & purification; D011786:Quality Control; D012475:Salmonella / Q000302:isolation & purification; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000302:isolation & purification; D014871:Water Microbiology / Q000592:standards*
chemical_list: D060766:Drinking Water