Design Management Group

Dasani

Dasani is a brand of bottled water produced by the Coca-Cola company and promoted as a healthy 'lifestyle' product with zero calories. As with many other bottled water brands, the water does not come from a glacier or a spring, it comes from the local tap supply. The water is passed through three filters intended to extract particles, organic debris and chlorine before a final stage known as reverse osmosis.

The technique, perfected by Nasa to purify fluids on spacecraft, involves forcing the water under pressure through a fine membrane, removing any remaining "bacteria, viruses, salts, minerals, sugars, proteins and toxin particles". The resulting water is somewhat tasteless so some minerals are added back - calcium, magnesium and sodium bicarbonate.

Launched in the US in 1999, it quickly became the number 2 brand and was launched in the UK on 10 February 2004. Unfortunately, the irreverent British press sniffed a good story. Not only were the local water providers upset by the suggestion that their tap water was somehow 'impure', it conjured up visions of an episode of BBC comedy programme Only Fools and Horses, in which the main character bottles tap water and sells it as "Peckham Spring".

The final straw came five weeks after the UK launch when it was revealed that 500000 bottles had been recalled as a precautionary measure. One of the calcium additives was impure, leading to the development of bromate, which with long-term exposure could be carcinogenic. Although the level was too low to be a risk to health (10-22 ppb) it was nonetheless above the UK limit of 10 (but ironically below the European limit of 25ppb).

Dasani has not yet been re-introduced in the UK, and a proposed European launch has been delayed.

Further information

• Dasani US website
• Soft drink is purified tap water BBC News 1 March 2004
• Coca - Cola Admits That Dasani is Nothing But Tap Water, Trevor Datson, Reuters 4 March 2004 (repost)
• Coke recalls controversial water BBC News 19 March 2004
• Dasani UK delay cans Europe sales BBC News 24 March 2004
• Coke's water bomb BBC News 16 June 2004
• Only Fools and Horses - (BBC comedy programme) in which Del bottles tap water, selling it as "Peckham Spring"

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