ABSTRACT
One of mineral water’s most valued qualities in the eyes of its consumers is that it is a natural product, which, for them guarantees its health benefits. This close association between naturalness and health has a long history that goes back to the spa towns of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, although the connection was already being questioned at that time. By 1800, chemists and pharmacists had invented methods to artificially emulate the chemical composition of mineral waters, could adjust the mineral content according to their consumers’ taste and produced artificial mineral waters at a lower price, while promising the same health benefits. For the producers of natural waters this was a potentially lethal challenge. They resorted to manipulating their waters using similar methods as the producers of artificial waters, but managed to preserve official and legal recognition of the status of naturalness for their waters.
