Drinking water hygiene: What consumers should know

No food­stuff is as strict­ly con­trolled as drink­ing water in Ger­man house­holds. But if it is not han­dled hygien­i­cal­ly in pri­vate house­holds, drink­ing water can also spoil. TÜV SÜD pro­vides infor­ma­tion on how to avoid hygiene errors with drink­ing bot­tles, water fil­ters and the like.

Accord­ing to the Ger­man Nutri­tion Soci­ety, the body should be sup­plied with approx­i­mate­ly 1.5 liters of water per day from bev­er­ages. The rest comes from water in sol­id food. In day­care cen­ters, schools, offices or home offices, water should be the num­ber one thirst quencher. In Ger­many, spe­cial­ist insti­tu­tions for healthy nutri­tion gen­er­al­ly advise the use of drink­ing water from the tap. Unlike oth­er coun­tries, drink­ing water in Ger­many is not rou­tine­ly dis­in­fect­ed with chlo­rine. Water sup­pli­ers chlo­ri­nate drink­ing water for short peri­ods of time and with­in tight legal lim­its when pathogens may be present in drink­ing water.

Drinking water with grades 1 to 2

Drink­ing water in Ger­many has a very good to good qual­i­ty accord­ing to the cur­rent drink­ing water report of the Fed­er­al Min­istry of Health and the Fed­er­al Envi­ron­ment Agency. The micro­bi­o­log­i­cal and chem­i­cal qual­i­ty para­me­ters were met in more than 99 per­cent of the sam­ples. Although one per­cent of the sam­ples showed minor and tem­po­rary devi­a­tions from the spec­i­fied max­i­mum val­ue, for exam­ple in the case of active ingre­di­ents from pes­ti­cides and bio­cides. How­ev­er, the pes­ti­cide con­cen­tra­tions mea­sured did not pose a health risk to con­sumers. Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal residues from tap drink­ing water also do not give rise to any health con­cerns, accord­ing to the con­sumer association.

Drinking water hygiene at home

How­ev­er, the qual­i­ty of drink­ing water can suf­fer if hygien­ic han­dling is neglect­ed in pri­vate house­holds. Unsuit­able stor­age, inter­me­di­ate stor­age that is too warm, and dirty drink­ing ves­sels can quick­ly lead to a loss of qual­i­ty and a bad taste. Suit­able stor­age of tap water in water con­tain­ers and drink­ing bot­tles is par­tic­u­lar­ly impor­tant at high­er out­door temperatures.

Material for storing water

Con­sumers can tell whether a con­tain­er is suit­able for stor­ing food and water by the “glass and fork” sym­bol. Drink­ing bot­tles should be shock-resis­tant and dish­wash­er-safe. Trans­par­ent bot­tles have proven their worth. This is because they make it easy to see whether clean­ing is required. Water fil­ters and bub­blers should also store water in suit­able materials.

Handling in everyday life

Stale tap water should not be con­sumed. Before fill­ing the drink­ing ves­sel with water from the tap, it should there­fore run out for a few sec­onds. Espe­cial­ly if no water has been drawn from the tap for a long time, the water stag­nat­ing in the house pipe may con­tain water bac­te­ria. Water bot­tles should not be left in the blaz­ing sun for a long time for rea­sons of germ development.

Cleaning

Drink­ing bot­tles should be emp­tied, cleaned and then dried dai­ly. This can be done in the dish­wash­er if the mate­r­i­al bears an appro­pri­ate mark. If bev­er­ages oth­er than water are also stored, a gen­tle dish­wash­ing deter­gent and a suit­able bot­tle brush are best in addi­tion to hot water. Caps and mouth­pieces are a par­tic­u­lar hygiene prob­lem. Those who clean by hand should unscrew, dis­as­sem­ble and clean them extra, and clean the rub­ber seals with hot water and dish­wash­ing liq­uid. Uten­sils that are dif­fi­cult to clean are unsuit­able for food han­dling accord­ing to food hygiene regulations.

Water filters and bubblers

Their use is always a con­cern if the water stands for a sim­i­lar length of time and is luke­warm, as in an old house tap. To pre­vent the tap water from germs in the fil­ter, excel­lent hygiene is also very impor­tant here. In any case, the fil­ters, car­tridges and noz­zles must be reg­u­lar­ly cleaned or com­plete­ly replaced accord­ing to the man­u­fac­tur­er’s instruc­tions and specifications.