Consumer Perception and Preference of Bottled and Tap Water

Abstract

In order to understand consumer behavior toward drinking water, it is first necessary to determine sensory perception and liking for tap and bottled water. Nevertheless, sensory analysis of water is a challenge as drinking water is supposed to have almost no taste. Therefore, a methodology based on a perceptive sorting task was designed for that purpose. Six bottled mineral water and six types of tap water were presented to 389 consumers who had to group these samples according to their sensory similarities, describe their groups and give their preferences. The resulting sensory map was found to be mainly driven by the overall level of mineralization. Tap water, after being passively dechlorinated, did not perform differently from bottled water in all aspects for most consumers. Basically, three main tastes of water were highlighted and linked to the amount of minerals. The study demonstrated that the most likely preferred types of water are those with medium mineralization (total dissolved solids 300–350 mg/L), which are perceived as tasteless and cooler. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS Practical use of the research presented in the present article is in water industry. This study enabled to understand the basis of consumers' perception and preference among drinking water and is a starting point in understanding consumers' behavior toward drinking water. There is also a methodological interest in the use of sorting tasks associated with preference ratings, which demonstrated its efficiency in assessing the links between perception and preference in water.

Experimental Study on the Palatability Impacts of Potable Water as a Hydronic Medium

“…First, any flavor variations between the cold supply water and the bottled water control samples (sample item 2 and sample item 4) are reported by the panels to be below the threshold level. This is consistent with prior research on tap water and bottled water flavor comparisons [19]. Second, any flavor variations between the cold supply water and the potable hot water samples (sample item 2 and sample item 3) are also reported by the panels to be below the threshold level.…”

Influence of minerals on the taste of bottled and tap water: A chemometric approach

“…This result was also probably due to the presence of residual chlorine (chlorine also produced negative loadings on PC3) in the tap water samples. This clearly highlights the abilities of the highly trained panel since a recent study (Teillet et al, 2010a) showed that untrained consumers (two-thirds of them) could not discriminate between tap and bottled water samples when chlorine was allowed to disappear by natural aeration.…”

“…Two works by Devesa et al (2007), and García and Devesa (2009) about blending of a high mineralization resource of about 1000e1100 mg/L with membrane treated waters showed a gradual improvement when TDS decreased, and the best results were reached at 270e350 mg/L. In a recent study, Teillet et al (2010a) pointed out a TDS of 300e350 mg/L as preferred values.…”

Determining the differential preferences of users of two fluoride-free water options in rural Ethiopia

“…In addition, the perception of the taste of the water was found to influence people's preference of different water types. Researchers found that most preferred water types have medium levels of mineralization and are perceived as tasteless and cooler (Teillet et al 2009). Furthermore, people who collected water at the CF perceived the price of filtered water as a lot less than the other group did.…”