What's in that bottle?
AQUAFINA | PepsiCo admission it's from tap, not spring, stuns buyers
July 28, 2007
BY VINNEE TONG
Sure, it doesn't actually say on the label that Aquafina water splashes through pristine Alpine valleys, but some parched folks in Chicago were still irked Friday to learn the PepsiCo product is no more exotic than plain tap water.
"That kind of stinks," said Anne Michaud, 47, visiting Chicago from Minneapolis. "They give the implication that it's spring water, and you find out it's tap water."
Michaud stopped by a Walgreens on North Michigan Avenue on Friday to buy another brand of bottled water, but she has been known to drink Aquafina.
Bottles of Pepsi's Aquafina water sit on a shelf next to other brands of bottled water at a Walgreens store.
"I won't anymore," she said. "Shame on them."
PepsiCo Inc. is the latest company to offer some clarity about the source of its top-selling bottled water as it announced Friday it would change the label on Aquafina water bottles to spell out that the drink comes from the same source as tap water.
A group called Corporate Accountability International has been pressuring bottled-water sellers to curb what it calls misleading marketing practices. The group has criticized PepsiCo over its blue Aquafina label with a mountain logo as perpetuating the misconception that the water comes from spring sources.
'A reasonable thing to do'
Ida Asner, 33, of Chicago, was not the least bit surprised to learn Friday about the true origin of the water in her Aquafina bottle.
"It tastes like tap water," she said.
So why pay money for it?
"It's convenient, and there are no water fountains nearby that are clean," she said.
Aquafina is the single biggest bottled water brand, and its bottles are now labeled "P.W.S." The new labels will spell out "public water source."
"If this helps clarify the fact that the water originates from public sources, then it's a reasonable thing to do," PepsiCo spokeswoman Michelle Naughton said Friday. Aquafina water is taken from public sources, then purified in a seven-step process.
The corporate accountability group is also pressing for similar concessions from the Coca-Cola Co., which owns the Dasani water brand, and Nestle Waters North America, seller of Nestle Pure Life purified drinking water, which gets some of its water from municipal sources.
Dasani's Web site says Dasani comes from local water supplies, is filtered using a process called reverse osmosis and enhanced with minerals.
Environmental impact criticized
"We don't believe that consumers are confused about the source of Dasani water," Coca-Cola spokeswoman Diana Garza Ciarlante said. "The label clearly states that it is purified water."
Sales of bottled water have been a growing source of revenue for companies such as PepsiCo, based in Purchase, N.Y., and Atlanta-based Coca-Cola, as consumer concern over health issues has weakened demand for traditional carbonated sodas.
Nestle said Friday it has been printing new labels for its Pure Life water that say whether the water comes from municipal supplies or ground water, and the labels will begin showing up later this year.
Pure Life is the only Nestle bottled water that uses public water sources, and the company did not have an estimate for how much of its supply originates from public sources.
The decisions by Nestle and PepsiCo come as criticism grows over environmental concerns about the industry's use of local water sources as well as consumption of resin and energy to package and ship the bottles.
This is the reason you don't buy bottled water
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Originally Posted by MonkeyF0cker
