TempoLife › Features › Mineral water mineral content
What is actually in the bottle
The published analysis of 23 bottled and mineral waters, with hardness computed from calcium and magnesium, what a litre gives you against the EFSA reference intakes, and which EU label claims each one qualifies for.
This is a reference table, not a diagnosis and not a prescription. If a clinician has put you on a sodium, calcium, potassium or fluid restriction, that number comes from them and overrides anything here. Analyses are revised as sources are re-tested, so the label on the bottle you are holding always outranks this page.
How to read this
Every figure below is milligrams per litre, and every one of them comes from the producer. A natural mineral water sold in the EU has to print an analysis of its characteristic constituents, which is why this comparison is possible at all: the numbers are not marketing, they are a labelling obligation under Directive 2009/54/EC.
The waters are grouped by dry residue — the milligrams left after a litre is evaporated and dried at 180 °C. That is the figure EU law uses to decide whether a bottle may say "very low mineral content" (up to 50 mg/l), "low mineral content" (up to 500 mg/l) or "rich in mineral salts" (above 1 500 mg/l), so it is the honest way to sort a shelf. Where a producer publishes ions but not a residue, the table shows an estimate marked est., calculated from the ion list with bicarbonate counted at 49% of its mass because drying converts it to carbonate.
The last column is hardness in German degrees, computed here from calcium and magnesium rather than copied: °dH = (Ca ÷ 40.08 + Mg ÷ 24.31) × 5.608. Water hardness explained has the other units and the conversions.
Very low mineral content
Dry residue up to 50 mg per litre. Almost nothing dissolved; chosen for what it does not contain.
| Water | Country | Carbonation | Ca mg/l | Mg mg/l | Na mg/l | HCO₃ mg/l | Residue mg/l | °dH |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voss | Norway | Still | 5 | 1 | 6 | 22 | 44 | 0.9 |
Low mineral content
Dry residue up to 500 mg per litre. The band most everyday still waters sit in.
| Water | Country | Carbonation | Ca mg/l | Mg mg/l | Na mg/l | HCO₃ mg/l | Residue mg/l | °dH |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Volvic | France | Still | 11.5 | 8 | 11.6 | 71 | 130 | 3.5 |
| Highland Spring | Scotland | Still | 35 | 8.5 | 6 | 136 | 130.5 est. | 6.9 |
| Acqua Panna | Italy | Still | 32.6 | 6.8 | 6.5 | 121 | 176 | 6.1 |
| Fiji Water | Fiji | Still | 18 | 15 | 18 | 154 | 222 | 6 |
| Buxton | England | Still | 55 | 19 | 24 | 248 | 280 | 12.1 |
| evian | France | Still | 80 | 26 | 6.5 | 360 | 345 | 17.2 |
| Perrier | France | Fortified with gas from the spring | 147.3 | 3.4 | 9 | 390 | 475 | 21.4 |
Moderately mineralised
Between 500 and 1 500 mg per litre. Enough mineral to taste, not enough for a legal "rich" claim.
| Water | Country | Carbonation | Ca mg/l | Mg mg/l | Na mg/l | HCO₃ mg/l | Residue mg/l | °dH |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vittel | France | Still | 240 | 20 | 7.3 | 402 | 841 | 38.2 |
| S.Pellegrino | Italy | Carbonated, gas added | 208 | 55.9 | 43.6 | 243 | 1 109 | 42 |
| Ferrarelle | Italy | Naturally carbonated | 365 | 19 | 51 | 1 420 | 1 180.4 est. | 55.5 |
| Badoit | France | Naturally carbonated | 190 | 85 | 165 | 1 300 | 1 200 | 46.2 |
Rich in mineral salts
Above 1 500 mg per litre. A litre of these carries a meaningful share of a daily calcium, magnesium or sodium reference.
| Water | Country | Carbonation | Ca mg/l | Mg mg/l | Na mg/l | HCO₃ mg/l | Residue mg/l | °dH |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apollinaris | Germany | Naturally carbonated | 90 | 120 | 410 | 1 810 | 1 740.2 est. | 40.3 |
| Staatlich Fachingen | Germany | Naturally carbonated | 96 | 46 | 545 | 1 846 | 1 787.9 est. | 24 |
| Contrex | France | Still | 468 | 74.5 | 9.1 | 372 | 2 125 | 82.7 |
| Hepar | France | Still | 555 | 119 | 14 | 383 | 2 513 | 105.1 |
| Gerolsteiner Sprudel | Germany | Naturally carbonated | 348 | 108 | 118 | 1 816 | 2 527 | 73.6 |
| Vichy Catalan | Spain | Naturally carbonated | 60 | 9 | 1 110 | 2 135 | 3 052 | 10.5 |
| Donat Mg | Slovenia | Naturally carbonated | 380 | 1 000 | 1 500 | 7 700 | 13 000 | 283.9 |
Medicinal-table and medicinal waters
Labelled with a mineralisation bracket in grams per litre and sold with a course of use rather than for thirst.
| Water | Country | Carbonation | Ca mg/l | Mg mg/l | Na mg/l | HCO₃ mg/l | Residue mg/l | °dH |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Narzan | Russia | Naturally carbonated | — | — | — | — | 2 000–3 000 | — |
| Borjomi | Georgia | Naturally carbonated | — | — | — | 3 500–5 000 | 5 000–7 500 | — |
| Essentuki No. 4 | Russia | Naturally carbonated | — | — | — | — | 7 000–10 000 | — |
| Essentuki No. 17 | Russia | Naturally carbonated | — | — | — | — | 10 000–14 000 | — |
Questions people actually ask
Water hardness explained
Degrees, millimoles and parts per million, converted, plus what hardness does and does not do.
Low-sodium water
The 20 mg per litre label rule, and how much sodium a litre of each water really carries.
Water highest in magnesium
Every water ranked by magnesium, against the EFSA adequate intake.
Water highest in calcium
Calcium per litre ranked, and how much of a day it covers.
Bicarbonate and alkaline water
What bicarbonate is, which waters carry a lot of it, and what it comes packaged with.
Fluoride in bottled water
The EU limit, the under-sevens labelling rule, and where natural fluoride comes from.
Water for making up infant formula
What the label claim means and which figures matter for a baby.
Water and kidney stones
What stone guidelines actually say about fluid, calcium and sodium.
Sparkling water: the four legal kinds
Naturally carbonated, spring gas, added gas — and the teeth and bone questions.
Reading a water label
The label vocabulary in Estonian, Finnish, Latvian, Lithuanian and Russian.
Price per litre against tap
The arithmetic for turning a bottle price and a water bill into one comparable number.
What a litre is worth
Three EFSA reference values do most of the work on this site: 950 mg of calcium a day for adults, 350 mg of magnesium for men and 300 mg for women, and a safe and adequate sodium intake of 2.0 g a day, which is 5 g of salt. Against those, most bottled waters are irrelevant and a few are not. A litre of Hepar covers about 58.4% of the adult calcium reference on its own; a litre of Donat Mg carries roughly 285.7% of the magnesium adequate intake for men. Those are the exceptions that make the category interesting; the median bottle on this page contributes a few per cent of anything.
The magnesium point has one detail worth knowing. EFSA sets a tolerable upper level of 250 mg a day for magnesium, but it applies only to magnesium added in supplements and fortified foods — magnesium naturally present in food and in water is explicitly excluded, because the adverse effect that defines the limit is the osmotic diarrhoea a soluble bolus causes. See the magnesium reference page for the full derivation.
Analyses: the figures each producer publishes on the label or in its technical sheet — see the basis line on every water page. Reference intakes: EFSA Dietary Reference Values. Label claims: Directive 2009/54/EC, Annex III. Mineral-water constituent limits and the fluoride labelling rule: Directive 2003/40/EC. Tap-water parametric values: Directive (EU) 2020/2184. Checked 2026-09-06.
Frequently asked questions
Which bottled water has the most magnesium?
Of the waters listed here, Donat Mg, at about 1 000 mg per litre. That is the top of a very short list: only a handful of waters carry more than the 50 mg per litre that lets a label say "contains magnesium", and the highest ones are sold as medicinal waters with a drinking regimen rather than as everyday hydration.
Which water is best for a low-sodium diet?
EU law lets a natural mineral water claim it is "suitable for a low-sodium diet" only if it carries less than 20 mg of sodium per litre. 10 of the waters listed here clear that line. For most people water is a rounding error next to bread, cheese and cured meat; it stops being one with the sodium-bicarbonate waters, where a single litre can carry a quarter of a day or more.
Is hard water bad for you?
No health-based guideline value has been set for hardness in drinking water. Hardness is just dissolved calcium and magnesium, and both are nutrients — a hard water is a small positive contribution to intake. What hardness genuinely affects is your kettle, your coffee machine and how soap behaves.
What does the mineralisation figure on the label mean?
It is the dry residue: what is left when a litre is evaporated and dried at 180 °C, in milligrams. EU law uses that one number for three claims — up to 50 mg per litre is "very low mineral content", up to 500 mg is "low mineral content", and above 1 500 mg is "rich in mineral salts". Russian and Georgian labels print the same idea in grams per litre.
Is bottled water better than tap water?
Not as a general rule. Bottled water is regulated as a food and tap water under the drinking-water directive, and both have to be safe. What differs is the mineral profile: a bottled water can be chosen for a specific figure — very low mineral content, high magnesium, low sodium — in a way tap water cannot, and it is two to three orders of magnitude more expensive per litre.
Water is the easiest thing to log and the easiest to forget
TempoLife counts hydration next to food, sleep and movement, so a dry afternoon shows up in the same place as the headache that followed it.