Warentest checks mineral water – a popular private label flops

“Medium”
Well bubbled: Warentest finds hardly any minerals in mineral water and still has little to complain about

Is it worth buying mineral water even though good water also comes from the tap? Stiftung Warentest tested 29 “medium” mineral waters. A popular private label flops.

Germany has it good. You can safely drink water straight from the tap in this country. The quality shows that. Nevertheless, many prefer mineral water, preferably with not too much, but also not too little carbonic acid. “Medium” is by far the best-selling mineral water variant. Stiftung Warentest tested 29 medium-carbonated mineral waters, including 14 own brands and 15 “regionally important branded waters”. The result makes you thirsty for more.

It says mineral water on it, but there are usually only a few minerals in the bottles – and that’s allowed. A minimum amount of minerals has not been stipulated for decades. This is also reflected in the test. In some test waters, the mineral content is so low that in parts of Germany even the tap water is richer in minerals. Based on the specifications of the Mineral and Table Water Ordinance, only three products deliver a high content. The end result shows that this is no guarantee of top quality. None of these three waters are among the best.

Cheap mineral water is great

If you buy cheap, you are well advised. Of the eight “very good” mineral waters in the test, several are among the cheapest. Both the medium water from Kaufland K-Classic “Quelle Löningen” and “Qunitus Quelle” from Penny and Saskia from the discounter Lidl (Quelle Jessen) are available for 18 cents per liter. With a rating of 1.4, all three products deliver the best quality in comparison.

Warentest finds little to complain about overall. “Almost three-quarters of the water tastes impeccable,” they say. No germs were found, and the finds of critical substances such as uranium were few. The end result is: Eight times “very good”, 18 times “good”, once “satisfactory” and twice “sufficient”. At the bottom of the comparison are dm with “Ivorell” and the Edeka “Gut & Billig” mineral water. There were devaluations because the testers found substances in “Ivorell” that “demonstrably got into the drink from the PET plastic bottle”. In the Edeka product, the information on the minerals on the label did not match the content of the water. However, according to the provider, the “Gut & cheap” water “is no longer commercially available with this source”.

All test results are available for a fee test.de