Can people perceive the difference between bottled water and tap water? Two studies suggest that – at least in France and in Northern Ireland – water tastes like water.
A French research team ran a taste test of six different bottled mineral waters and six municipal tap waters. This was a collaboration between two scientific institutes (CNRS, the French National Centre for Scientific Research, and INRA, the National Institute of Agronomic Research) and Lyonnaise des Eaux, a company that manages many public water supplies.
The tasters were “389 persons from all over France”. The bottled waters were “chosen among the French bottled water available”. The tap waters were “from various regions of France, supplied by Lyonnaise des Eaux”. The team published their study in the Journal of Sensory Studies in 2010….
So begins this week’s Improbable Research column in The Guardian.