Bottled water has a shelf life printed on it, but does it really go bad?

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Bottled water has a shelf life printed on it, but does it really go bad?

Posted: 3/14/2011 6:14:23 AM EDT

So I've been stocking up on a lot of cases of water & 1 gallon jugs and noticed they all have a shelf life printed a couple of years out.

But if they are in opened, aren't they good forever? Or damn near close to it?

Why is there an expiration date printed on it? Just like an FDA thing?

What's the skinny on this?

Thanks.

Posted: 3/14/2011 6:21:07 AM EDT

[#1]

Its the plastic not the water. It starts to break down and makes the water taste like ass

Posted: 3/14/2011 6:47:00 AM EDT

[#2]

Concur it's the plastic. The chemicals can leach into the water, imparting a nasty, plastic flavor to your water. Some of those chemicals have been linked to cancer.

Posted: 3/14/2011 8:10:08 AM EDT

[#3]

i leave cases in my truck for a few weeks and then rotate, i dont leave them in the bed, if i did they only last a week or two...until they start to get a weird taste

Posted: 3/14/2011 8:51:47 AM EDT

[#4]

Funny (in a interesting sort of way) how some of you guys immediately jump on the 'plastic' bandwagon. I only say this because I've never experienced the foul of `off' taste to which you allude.

Eight years ago I was in a position to obtain 24 free cases of water (the normal 500ml size). Five years later I was still drinking the remnants of those cases and never detected any change in taste. The water was stored stacked in my unheated / uncooled garage, and was about evenly split between Sparkletts, Dasani, and a generic store brand. At the end of that time frame I moved out of state, so I gave away the last six or seven cases to friends and never heard a pip from them concerning bad tastes. Today, I'm drinking 3+ year old bottle water I've purchased from Wally World and again, no bad or 'off' tastes.

Posted: 3/14/2011 8:59:29 AM EDT

[#5]

I'm inclined to think that storage methods are the key, with a cool temperature and zero sunlight being ideal.

Posted: 3/14/2011 10:47:14 AM EDT

[#6]

Sunshine is the key, or in this case the detonator. I've got plastic 1 gallon water jugs I've been reusing for going on four years. The individual sizes are in pop bottles, and go off after several months of reuse.

Overall, though, the expiration date (as has been discussed before) is a bureaucracy thing.

Posted: 3/14/2011 12:28:37 PM EDT

[#7]

This is what I am talking about

Quoted:

Funny (in a interesting sort of way) how some of you guys immediately jump on the 'plastic' bandwagon. I only say this because I've never experienced the foul of `off' taste to which you allude.

Eight years ago I was in a position to obtain 24 free cases of water (the normal 500ml size). Five years later I was still drinking the remnants of those cases and never detected any change in taste. The water was stored stacked in my unheated / uncooled garage, and was about evenly split between Sparkletts, Dasani, and a generic store brand. At the end of that time frame I moved out of state, so I gave away the last six or seven cases to friends and never heard a pip from them concerning bad tastes. Today, I'm drinking 3+ year old bottle water I've purchased from Wally World and again, no bad or 'off' tastes.

Posted: 3/14/2011 1:17:40 PM EDT

[#8]

Quoted:

Funny (in a interesting sort of way) how some of you guys immediately jump on the 'plastic' bandwagon. I only say this because I've never experienced the foul of `off' taste to which you allude.

Eight years ago I was in a position to obtain 24 free cases of water (the normal 500ml size). Five years later I was still drinking the remnants of those cases and never detected any change in taste. The water was stored stacked in my unheated / uncooled garage, and was about evenly split between Sparkletts, Dasani, and a generic store brand. At the end of that time frame I moved out of state, so I gave away the last six or seven cases to friends and never heard a pip from them concerning bad tastes. Today, I'm drinking 3+ year old bottle water I've purchased from Wally World and again, no bad or 'off' tastes.

Yeah but your from Arizona. You have no taste buds

Posted: 3/14/2011 1:32:36 PM EDT

[#9]

This comes up now and then. I used to have a link to a document Pepsico sent to FEMA on bottled water expiration dates post Katrina. They stated that bottled water can be stored indefinately.

Posted: 3/14/2011 3:33:44 PM EDT

[#10]

I'm sure it can be kept indefinitely. Now, whether it tastes any good or not is another matter. That plastic taste is horrible IMO. Same thing happens to milk in plastic bottles. I can taste it whenever we run out of our glass-bottled/delivered-weekly milk, and have to go to the grocery store to buy a bottle. It is very noticeable.

Posted: 3/14/2011 3:36:06 PM EDT

[#11]

Quoted:
I'm sure it can be kept indefinitely. Now, whether it tastes any good or not is another matter. That plastic taste is horrible IMO. Same thing happens to milk in plastic bottles. I can taste it whenever we run out of our glass-bottled/delivered-weekly milk, and have to go to the grocery store to buy a bottle. It is very noticeable.

I have a decent palate, never experienced that taste. I have left water bottles in the back of my Jeep for a couple of years in the summer heat, never tasted "off" when I drink them and rotate.

Posted: 3/14/2011 4:13:54 PM EDT

[#12]

The day water stops coming out of my tap "possible" carcinogens and plastic taste are gonna be the least of my worries.

Posted: 3/14/2011 5:05:01 PM EDT

[#13]

I have been a mechanic in the bottled water industry for the last 7 years. I will tell you all that the water dont go bad under normal circumstances. The water is filtered through micron filters, ran through a huge UV light and then ozonated with low levels of ozone.

The PET bottles dont go bad under normal circumstances either. The bottled water market is very competetive and the cost of the PET resin is a major factor in the cost of the case of water. The company i work for makes the lightest bottles on the market today. If these bottles of water are stored in an area with fumes, such as gasoline, it will permeate the bottle and cause the water to taste foul.

We have a panel of people who taste our water daily. They taste water that is unlabeled and they have no idea how old it is. They are employees that volunteer for this. The water they are given to taste ranges from old to new, flavored and unflavored. Any water that gets a bad mark, if it is in stock, gets put on hold and further testing is performed to ensure quality.

Posted: 3/14/2011 5:10:38 PM EDT

[#14]

Quoted:
The day water stops coming out of my tap "possible" carcinogens and plastic taste are gonna be the least of my worries.

This.

Here is my .02 worth of personal experience with the infamous expiring water syndrome. Recently I did a full blown update/rearrangement of my preps and while doing so decided to finally toss about 12 gallons of water I had from Y2K. All were in the originally sealed gallon jugs of mostly store brand with expiration dates of '99 and '00. They had always been stored at the bottom of a pantry closet in my home - no sunlight and normal climate controlled temps. 110% all did have a plastic odor and taste to some degree. To my palate and nose it seemed that the jugs constructed of thicker plastic had the stronger plastic taste/scent, however, it is quite possible it was a placebo effect. I took a healthy pull of each and suffered no ill side effects. It is my personal opinion that if this water had been mixed with any type of powdered drink mix I would never have been able to tell that it had been stored so long.

I believe that the date on water is a "best by" more than a true expiration.

Posted: 3/14/2011 5:17:16 PM EDT

[#15]

Originally Posted By M4Michael

I believe that the date on water is a "best by" more than a true expiration.

You believe right.

Posted: 3/14/2011 5:20:18 PM EDT

[#16]

Its more about starting to taste like plastic after a year or so. Sun may also cause algea, in some cases real bad, so keep it in a dark, cool place.
Remember that with food the expiration date may be a "best by" date, so what they really mean is that the taste will be affected, not that it goes bad.
I rotate once a year. The water I keep in my EDC bad (stainless steel Klean Katenen) that I drink often enough that I dont worry about rotating.
Once you starting drinking out of steel and glass bottles you realize how crappy plastic contaiers taste. I'm getting used to drinking glass bottled coke, its cheaper too around here.

FerFAL

Posted: 3/14/2011 5:28:14 PM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:

Originally Posted By M4Michael

I believe that the date on water is a "best by" more than a true expiration.

You believe right.

I believe the government mandated that everything needed to have an expiration date on it, whether or not it actually expired/spoiled. Canned food is a good example of this, since I have eaten canned peaches that were 20 years old, and suffered no ill effects. I think most canned goods show an expiration date of about two years from manufacture now.

Posted: 3/14/2011 6:08:10 PM EDT

[#18]

Last week I found about 6 one gallon jugs of water in my basement that had expiration dates from 5 years ago. None were leaking. I even dropped one in my bathtub to see if it would easily break open, but it didn't. I then decided to drink some of it. It tasted fine and had no unusual odor to it. I was going to toss them, but I think I will keep the unopened ones just in case I need them.

Posted: 3/14/2011 6:12:41 PM EDT

[#19]

Quoted:
Its the plastic not the water. It starts to break down and makes the water taste like ass

if you were really thirsty.......you'll welcome ass crack moisture

Posted: 3/14/2011 6:20:50 PM EDT

[#20]

I knew I would get a laugh if I read this thread all the way to the bottom.

Posted: 3/14/2011 6:40:17 PM EDT

[#21]

Quoted:

Quoted:
Its the plastic not the water. It starts to break down and makes the water taste like ass

if you were really thirsty.......you'll welcome ass crack moisture

Bear? Is that you?

Posted: 3/14/2011 6:40:22 PM EDT

[#22]

Quoted:

I'm inclined to think that storage methods are the key, with a cool temperature and zero sunlight being ideal.

I left lots of water in 90 degree heat for a long time. 896 cases (the back of the load) were left out for about 2 months. No issues.

Posted: 3/14/2011 9:38:48 PM EDT

[#23]

Lots of great info in here, thanks everyone!

The odd thing is, I've noticed weird smelling water that I just bought from the grocery store.

Its hard to describe other than a bit foul. Anyone know why this is since its well under the expiration date?

I've noticed this all the time, not just on a single case.

Posted: 3/15/2011 2:09:25 AM EDT

[#24]

Quoted:

Originally Posted By M4Michael

I believe that the date on water is a "best by" more than a true expiration.

You believe right.

I believe the government mandated that everything needed to have an expiration date on it, whether or not it actually expired/spoiled. Canned food is a good example of this, since I have eaten canned peaches that were 20 years old, and suffered no ill effects. I think most canned goods show an expiration date of about two years from manufacture now.

Those dates are not "expiration dates," they are "use by" dates. I called a big company about it once, and the the "use by date" is used strictly for taste. Canned foood will keep indefinitely if the container is not "compromised."

Posted: 3/15/2011 2:23:03 AM EDT

[#25]

Quoted:

Originally Posted By M4Michael

I believe that the date on water is a "best by" more than a true expiration.

You believe right.

I believe the government mandated that everything needed to have an expiration date on it, whether or not it actually expired/spoiled. Canned food is a good example of this, since I have eaten canned peaches that were 20 years old, and suffered no ill effects. I think most canned goods show an expiration date of about two years from manufacture now.

Here is a link which lends credence to all that. Food Product Dating

Posted: 3/15/2011 2:38:11 AM EDT

[#26]

For what it's worth, I recently got to test out the "plastic breaking down" theory.

I work in a food warehouse, and about 6 months ago I put a half pallet of water up in a rack where nobody would disturb it.

It was a watermelon doro bin filled with nestle purelife, poland spring and my store brand loose bottles of water.

There it sat, in 38 degree consistent temperature, no sunlight, for 6 months, until yesterday when I pulled it down and some of my night crew sampled it.

The overwhelming consensus was that the water tasted off, stale, and had a funny aftertaste. I personally tried 6 bottles or so ... all of which had a chemical aftertaste.

Is it still drinkable? I hope so, but this test has confirmed in my mind that storing water long term in cheap plastic bottles isn't ideal. It most definitely picks up a taste, which implies that it has also picked up a chemical or some sort. End of the world? No, but not what I want to deal with.

ETA - the "expiration" date on the water I remembered to look at was sometime in 2012.

Posted: 3/15/2011 5:31:08 AM EDT

[#27]

The problem with the bottles that are being produced today is they are very thin. So thin that odor and such can permeate the bottle. Its largely due to large companies trying to cut costs to be competetive in the market. However the media coverage of the evil plastic water bottled has escalated the quest to produce a bottle with less plastic in it. Not only are the bottles lighter, but the caps are as well. If you take a look at everything that is packaged in plastic bottles you will find that water is only a drop in the bucket in todays markets. The media and water filter companies want the public to quit buying bottled water becuase it is readily available from the tap in almost limitless supply. I dont buy it in bottles. I use from my well, but i dont hold companies who sell bottled water soley responsible for filling our landfills. There are lots of ways to prevent taste and odor problems, but im afraid that storing water in the new generation of bottles for extended periods of time is not one of them.

Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

Posted: 3/16/2011 6:32:16 PM EDT

[#28]

Quoted:
The problem with the bottles that are being produced today is they are very thin. So thin that odor and such can permeate the bottle. Its largely due to large companies trying to cut costs to be competetive in the market. However the media coverage of the evil plastic water bottled has escalated the quest to produce a bottle with less plastic in it. Not only are the bottles lighter, but the caps are as well. If you take a look at everything that is packaged in plastic bottles you will find that water is only a drop in the bucket in todays markets. The media and water filter companies want the public to quit buying bottled water becuase it is readily available from the tap in almost limitless supply. I dont buy it in bottles. I use from my well, but i dont hold companies who sell bottled water soley responsible for filling our landfills. There are lots of ways to prevent taste and odor problems, but im afraid that storing water in the new generation of bottles for extended periods of time is not one of them.

Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

So could that be why I'm noticing a weird scent on new bottles I buy from the store and consume right away? It's quite odd & has boggled my mine for quite some time now.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Bottled water has a shelf life printed on it, but does it really go bad?

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