Barrelled Water is Not Best Consumed "Fresh"
Food spoils over time, and water goes bad too, so people generally have the habit of eating fresh food and drinking fresh water. However, barrelled water is not best consumed "fresh."
The barrelled water sold on the market, whether it's distilled water, reverse osmosis water, mineral water, or other types of purified water, has undergone multiple filtration and disinfection during its production process. However, before being filled into barrels, it is generally treated with ozone as a final disinfection step. Therefore, freshly filled barrelled water will contain a relatively high concentration of ozone.
Although ozone has a strong disinfecting effect, its strong oxidizing properties are very harmful to human health. When inhaled, ozone destroys vitamin E in the skin, leading to wrinkles and dark spots. In severe cases, it can damage the body's immune function and induce lymphatic diseases.
Therefore, if you drink barrelled water "fresh," you will inevitably ingest these harmful substances along with it. The best approach is to let a new barrel of water sit for 1-2 days, allowing the ozone to dissipate before drinking it.
Furthermore, barrelled water is not necessarily a healthy and safe option for drinking, especially when used with a water dispenser. The water outlet, inlet, and drain of the dispenser can easily allow microbes and airborne contaminants to enter the water barrel, causing secondary contamination of the water.
The Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Environment Resource Utilization and Protection found through sampling and testing that under normal room temperature, the bacterial count in the water from a dispenser was zero on the first day, but it soared to 8,000 by the tenth day. This is sufficient proof that barrelled water can be severely contaminated.
To prevent drinking water that has been secondarily contaminated, the best method is to heat the water before consumption. To prevent the repeated heating of water from producing large amounts of nitrites, which are harmful to the human body, consumers should try to purchase boiling-type water dispensers when choosing one. These dispensers use a microcomputer to separate hot and cold water, maintaining an accurate and stable water temperature to ensure the water you drink is clean and healthy.