Does bottled water lose quality or go bad over time?

[jackson6612]

I'm not a science student, can only understand simple chemistry. So, please be plain. Thanks.

Is this possible for stagnant water such as bottled water to become rotten, lose quality, after a long time? Does the length of time have any effect on water's quality?

 

[~christina~]

I assume the growth of bacteria would create a loss of "quality." Of course, bottled water is generally enclosed from the outside environment so I'm not sure how long it would take for that to happen.

 

[alxm]

Not really. Clean water doesn't have any nutrients for bacteria to grow with.

 

[iRaid]

I think that it is if the plastic releases something into the water or something like that.

 

[DaveC426913]

Do you mean clean water exposed to air? Absolutely.Even clean water has a good dose of bacteria. Even sterilized, bottled water is still only clean to within a certain degree of tolerance. There are always some bacterial and algal spores.

Bacteria or even algae could probably multiply even in very clean water to the extent that they could spoil the taste of the water; it wouldn't require much.

 

[jackson6612]

Thank you, everyone.

Dave's reply suggests that stagnant clean water exosed to air as well as bottled water can both lose quality. Okay, there are bacteria and fungi in the air as well in the bottle; it is almost impossible to get perfectly pure water. That means even seawater is full of bacteria etc. What about underground water? The underground water has seeped down the ground after going throgh several natural purification steps. Right? Aren't there any bacteria, fungi, etc residing there under the ground? Is undergroud water more pure than seawater (forget the salt content) or stagnant pure clean water exposed to air or bottled water? I have heard from people that water pumped from a considerable depth is clean and good for health.