Definitions of mineralisation vary across regions and tend to be aligned with consumer preferences in specific markets. Europeans have a long history of drinking highly mineralised waters, while Americans, Asians and Australasians are accustomed to relatively low mineralised waters. We have used the European Federation of Bottled Waters definition, based on EU Directive 2009/54/EC. This defines low mineral as having a TDS (total dissolved solids) of <500mg/L, medium between 500-1500mg/L and above 1500mg/L as highly mineralised.