Mineral water — HMTc Standard

How every number on this page is set

Two applicability rules govern every row in this category and are applied uniformly. (1) THE PACKAGED-WATER BRIDGE. A national drinking-water maximum is treated as directly applicable to a packaged-water row because the product is the same substance assessed in the same basis (µg per litre of water as consumed), and because the two largest jurisdictions write that bridge into their own packaged-water rules: the FDA bottled-water standard of quality incorporates the EPA National Primary Drinking Water Regulation maximum contaminant levels by reference at 21 CFR 165.110(b)(4)(iii), and the scope of EU Directive 2020/2184 expressly reaches water put into bottles or containers. The bridge is disclosed, not silent, and it is never applied where the instrument itself carves the product form out. (2) THE NATURAL-MINERAL-WATER CARVE-OUT. Directive 2020/2184 excludes natural mineral waters recognised under Directive 2009/54/EC, so no Drinking Water Directive value is used on the mineral-water row; and FDA exempts mineral water from its aesthetically based (secondary) allowable levels, which is why the mineral-water aluminium cell is a disclosed read-across rather than a direct government limit. Where the instruments write a product-form split, the split is preserved: mineral-water total chromium is 50 µg/L (Hong Kong Cap 132V natural-mineral-waters line, matched by Health Canada, WHO and California) while other packaged drinking water is 25 µg/L (Directive Annex I Part B). UNIT BASIS. Every value is expressed per litre of finished packaged product as consumed. Instruments stating mg/kg (Hong Kong Cap 132V, Israel FCS 2016, Vietnam QCVN 8-2:2011) and instruments stating mg/L are compared at face value because the density of potable water is within 0.3 per cent of 1 kg/L across the packaging and storage range, so µg/kg and µg/L are the same number to well inside analytical uncertainty. No reconstitution or dilution conversion is applied anywhere in this category; the 8:1 powder-to-liquid conversion is confined to infant formula and is expressly not used on the infant nursery-water row. TOTAL CHROMIUM IS FIRM, NOT A SCREEN. In a food matrix total chromium is dominated by nutritionally benign Cr(III) and is a poor proxy for the health-relevant species, which is why HMTc normally records it as a screen. Water is the documented exception: the drinking-water instruments regulate total chromium precisely because the two species interconvert in aqueous media, and the Health Canada entry states that the maximum acceptable concentration protects against chromium(VI) effects and is established for total chromium. Hexavalent chromium is additionally published as its own cell, so the species control is not displaced by the total. NON-HEALTH-BASED AND FUTURE-DATED ANCHORS ARE LABELLED. Aluminium at 200 µg/L is an EU Annex I Part C indicator parameter, an FDA secondary (aesthetic) allowable level and an NHMRC aesthetic guideline, and is presented as such rather than as a toxicological line. The EU lead (5 µg/L) and total-chromium (25 µg/L) parametric values are the Directive's end-state values, which member states must meet by 12 January 2036 and below which transitional values of 10 and 50 µg/L apply until then; HMTc adopts the end-state values now, so those cells are stricter than currently-enforced EU practice, which is disclosed rather than presented as current EU law. For lead the number is independently compelled by the in-force FDA allowable level of 5 µg/L.

Master Limit Table

All values in ppb (µg/kg), as-consumed basis. 9 of 11 analytes carry a firm ceiling; the remainder are governed by mandatory control or reflex-speciation screening with no standalone number, itemised in the derivation below. A brand meeting every firm value on a like-for-like basis, and passing every control, qualifies for the mark.

Tier 1 (Pb, iAs, Hg, MeHg, Cd) are zero-tolerance toxics with no established safe threshold. Tier 2 (tAs, Cr-VI, Ni, Sn, Al, Cr) carry a 150% transitional allowance under the program’s Status A–E framework.

Derivation — every government’s number, side by side

The full derivation for Mineral water. Each row lists every government maximum level in force worldwide, converted to the as-consumed basis; the HMTc limit is the strictest of them, and the last column names which sovereign law binds. A blank cell means that government sets no limit for this analyte in this product.

All values µg/kg (ppb), as-consumed basis. ² no government regulates this analyte for this exact product form: the value is a disclosed read-across from the nearest applicable government maximum, and the derivation names the instrument it comes from. It is never taken from occurrence data. After publication the standards ratchet may tighten it, using certified-lot results only. ³ not material in this matrix: controlled by reflex speciation or packaging control, not a standalone number. &sup4; no sovereign maximum exists for this analyte in this product, but a credible exposure pathway does — it is screened on every lot under ALARA against the tightest analogous reference, not assigned an invented number.

Occurrence and derivation rationale

For each analyte on the panel: what the peer-reviewed and survey literature measured in this category, cited one way to the Heavy Metal Index, and the Method v2.0 reasoning behind the certification limit — including, where no government sets a number, why the program sets one anyway. Occurrence figures are literature findings; the derivation is the certifier's.

Cite this standard

Pendergrass, K. “Mineral water.” In Heavy Metal Tested & Certified (HMTc) Water and Water-Based Products standard, version 1.0. Institute of Contaminant Standards (ICS), 2026. DOI: registration pending.

The literature baseline for every analyte is maintained independently at the Heavy Metal Index. This certification standard applies those findings; the two are kept editorially separate by design.