Why does my plastic water bottle taste weird?

Whether you’ve got a brand new bottle with a taste you can’t get rid of, or you want to know how to clean, store, and maintain your hydration vessel of choice – we’ve got all the tips and tricks to keep your bottle or bladder reservoir fresh and ready for use.

A new bottle or bladder can sometimes have a plastic taste or odour – which is perfectly normal and will often disappear after the first few uses.

But, if you’d like to eliminate that bad taste or odour straight away, there are a few household items you can use to help speed up that process.

How to get rid of taste and odour in your drink bottle or bladder:

1. Scrub

Start by giving your new water bottle or reservoir a good scrub with warm water and detergent, then wipe it dry.

2. Soak

Fill it with hot water and add a few teaspoons of either vinegar or baking/bi-carb soda, mix it through and allow it to soak overnight.

3. Repeat

In the morning, empty and give it another good clean with warm soapy water and you should be good to go.

Vinegar and baking soda are a deadly combination when it comes to bacteria, or unpleasant smells and flavours.

Caring for your water bottle

1. Wash it out – every time!

The best way to maintain any bottle or bladder is to rinse it out with warm water after each use and to let it air dry completely.

2. Scrub it

On a frequent basis, you should look to undertake a more thorough clean by using a brush with hot water and detergent. Give your bottle or bladder a good scrub including the inside, outside and all fittings and attachments of the bottle or bladder. Scrubbing is the important part, as it’ll physically remove any visible or invisible bacteria.

3. Leave it open when not in use

Most odour and taste problems occur when bottles are stored in wet areas or kept sealed for long periods of time with liquid inside which allows bacteria to develop – so you should try to drain and air out your bottle after each use.

4. Check the cleaning instructions

Some bottles can also be placed in dishwashers which makes caring for them a little more convenient. Bladders and reservoirs, however, should be kept out of the dishwasher so they don’t get damaged.

There are so many household items that you can use to de-funk your dirty bottle or bladder. 

The best ways to clean a dirty bottle/hydration reservoir:

If your water reservoir develops a funky taste or odour or if you just want to give it an exceptional clean, there are a range of options you can try:

1. Hot Water & Detergent

Wash the bottle or bladder using a bottle brush with hot water and detergent. The bottle brush physically removes the funk from the water bottle with scrubbing action. Ensure you rinse it well after cleaning and then allow it to air dry.

2. Baking/Bi-Carb Soda

Add a few heaped teaspoons of baking/bi-carb soda into the bottle or bladder and fill with hot water before allowing it to soak for a few hours. After the soak, wash vigorously with a bottle brush, hot water and detergent, then rinse and allow to air dry.

3. Vinegar

Fill with hot water, add a few teaspoons of regular white vinegar and let it soak overnight. Make sure if you’ve used baking soda previously that is has been removed otherwise you’ll have a DIY volcano explosion on your hands. In the morning wash the vinegar out with a bottle brush, hot water and detergent then rinse and allow it to air dry. The bottle will have a slight vinegar odour for the first few minutes, but that will quickly dissipate and the water bottle should smell fresh and clean.

4. Anti-Bacterial Mouthwash

Place 2-3 capfuls of anti-bacterial mouthwash per litre of bottle or bladder capacity and shake for 5 minutes. Then empty the bottle or bladder and wash with a bottle brush, hot water and detergent before rinsing and allowing to air dry.

5. Camelbak Cleaning Tabs

These tabs are really easy to use, first, you wash with a bottle brush, hot water and detergent and then rinse before filling a bottle or bladder with water. Add a cleaning tab and shake until dissolved, then let it stand for 5 minutes. Lastly, empty it out and then rinse with clean water.

6. Cleaning Kits

Many hydration brands provide cleaning kits which come with precise tools to get into all the nooks and crannies where household brushes can’t reach.

7. Freeze it

If you’re still not satisfied with your cleaning job, pop your bottle or bladder into the freezer to kill off any remaining bacteria.

Don’t negate all that elbow grease, make sure you take the extra steps to prevent mould and bacteria.

Storing your water bottle

Now you’ve done all the hard work removing the gunk and taste from your bottle and bladder, how do you keep it clean?

1. Drain the water

When it comes to keeping your bladder clean, the best thing to do is to store it dry, and avoid leaving water in it for extended periods of time. No matter what cleaning method you use, you should always give your bottle a thorough rinse with warm clean water as soon as you finish. Then allow it to air dry completely.

2. Use a rack to dry it first

Air drying in a well-ventilated area is the most hygienic way to ensure that your bottle or bladder doesn’t develop bacteria, odours and/or mould. It doesn’t hurt to take extra steps including using racks for bottles, or hooks for bladders so that you can dry them upside down. Once you are sure that your bottle or bladder is 100% dry, seal with the lid and pack it down before placing it in a dry environment.

3. Get rid of any air

Take extra care with bladders and flexible/collapsible bottles to ensure that no area is air locked with water. You can prevent this by shaking, separating, or using a brace such as the Camelback Reservoir Dryer throughout the drying process.

4. Keep it in the freezer

If you want to go ‘next level’ with your bottle or bladder – consider storing it in the freezer, which will not only assist in restricting bacteria developing but it will also be cold for when you go to use it on the next occasion.

Do you have any other methods for keeping your reservoir or bottle sparkling clean?

Once a valued member of the Snowys’ crew, Ben is now the Experiential Learning Manager at Youth Inc. In this role, he gets to live out his passion – bringing young people together for adventure-based learning experiences to help them build a life that is purposeful for them.

The outdoors has always been Ben’s second home and his adventures have taken him to almost every continent in the world. He’s hiked in the United States, mountain biked in Cambodia, 4WD through South Africa, kayaked in Laos, skydived at Uluru, white water rafted in New Zealand and much more.

While many say Ben has a poorly developed sense of fear and no idea of the odds against him, he puts his adventures down to the planning and preparation of the gear that he’s bought from Snowys.

Find out more on Ben’s website or follow his escapades on Instagram.

2018/11/07

Bottled mineral water is the most consumed beverage during the summer months. The most common packaging for water is polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles. Such polymer is widely used because of its excellent properties of transparency, low weight, strength and good oxygen, water vapour and carbon dioxide barrier properties.

In summer, high temperatures and bad storing conditions such as, long times of ultraviolet radiation exposure, may produce a degradation of the polymer, thus resulting in thermo-oxidative processes and generating compounds that have not been intentionally added to the polymer and are known as non-intentionally added substances (NIAS).

As it is known, bottled water is odourless, colourless and tasteless, even though not absolutely. It is known that the characteristic taste of some water brands depends on the chemical composition of the salts they contain. However, when a consumer detects a strange taste or aroma that differs from that characteristic of water, one of the causes might be the packaging.

Such strange taste might have been caused by migration of any chemical compound from the plastic to the water. There are different chemical compounds that can be found in bottled water resulting from such migration, such as acetaldehyde, formaldehyde or antimony, among others.

Modification of mineral water by acetaldehyde

Among the compounds that can migrate to the bottled water, it has been found that acetaldehyde can change the organoleptic characteristics of water, thus producing a fruity taste, something like green-apple taste, or a plastic taste. This taste is not dangerous due to the low concentration, but it depends on the dose ingested.

Some researches mention that a trained sensory panel could recognize extremely low acetaldehyde concentration, between 10 and 20 µg l-1 in mineral water. This is due to the fact that a low concentration can produce taste modifications. Some studies point out that values of 10 µg l-1 of acetaldehyde content should not be exceeded, with the aim of guaranteeing the water quality.

According to the Regulation 10/2011, the specific migration limit for acetaldehyde is 6 mg/ kg-1 of food. However, since the sensory threshold is much more restrictive, bottles finding water with strange taste would comply with Regulation 10/2011 but would not with Regulation 1935/2004. The latter mentions in its clause 3 that materials should be enough inert not to modify the organoleptic characteristics of the foods they contain. Therefore, the sensory research on PET-bottled water is fundamental to guarantee the compliance with legislation and maintain the image of the brand before the consumer so that they will not find any different taste rather than the characteristic of the product.

Main factors that affect the appearance of acetaldehyde in mineral water

The migration of acetaldehyde from the package walls to the bottled mineral water depends on different factors, such as the following:

• Contact surface
• Material composition and concentration of acetaldehyde on the bottle walls
• High temperatures during the manufacturing process of bottles
• Whether bottles are returnable or non-returnable
• Storing conditions: high temperatures and sunlight contribute to the migration of acetaldehyde to water
• Water carbonation percentage
• Contact time between the material and the water

In relation to other factors affecting this process, such as high temperatures and sunlight, it is really common that during the summer months acetaldehyde’s migration accelerates from the bottle walls to the water due to its polar characteristic and its easy dissolution in water.

Measures for controlling acetaldehyde’s migration

Considering bottle manufacturing, there should be some control of the chemical quality of the raw materials and the technology used for obtaining bottles. It has also been seen that the use of scavengers shows a positive effect but can adversely affect the transparency and colour of the polymer, as well as increase the cost of the product. 2-aminobenzamide (No CAS 88-68-6; anthranilamide) is widely used as a scavenger agent during the production of preforms with the aim of reducing the concentration of acetaldehyde of the bottle walls.

Among these control measures in bottled mineral water, we can find the performance of sensory analysis after the packaging time has expired. According to new technologies used, different traces of acetaldehyde can be found from the 6th month. For that reason, it is recommended to perform the analysis to check possible strange tastes at the 6th month and the 12th month as a quality control. These are extra measures apart from the first ones. It is also appropriate to control the temperature conditions during storing, especially during the summer months.