What is spring water, and is it better than tap?
Share
Part of our bottled and other water guide
The label says spring and the picture shows a hillside. What does UK law actually mean by it, and how could you check what is in your own glass with a 20-in-1 test strip?
Short answer: Defra's guidance for England gives 3 conditions for calling water spring water. It must come from an underground source tapped at a natural or drilled exit, be free of disease-causing parasites and bacteria, and come from a source protected from pollution. It needs no composition label, and Defra says no treatment is forbidden, though rules apply to some.
By Andrew Tomlinson, WaterKit · Last reviewed 29 October 2026
What is spring water?
It is water from an underground source that is bottled where it emerges, according to Defra's guidance for England. A product can be described as spring water only if it meets all 3 of these conditions.
- It comes from an underground water source tapped at a natural or drilled exit.
- It is free of parasites and bacteria that cause disease.
- The source is protected from pollution.
Defra adds that the water must meet limits for chemical, pesticide, microbiological and radioactive substances, and must leave the site in the bottles or containers the customer will use. The exception is a spring whose water was already going to a more distant bottling plant in other containers on or before 13 December 1996. Our mineral water versus spring water guide covers how it differs from natural mineral water. Defra's pages apply to England. For Wales and Northern Ireland they point to Food Standards Agency guidance, and for Scotland to Food Standards Scotland. We did not read those for this guide, so check them if you are outside England.
Where does spring water come from?
From an underground source, reached either at a natural spring or through a drilled borehole. Defra says the water can come from a spring or a borehole, so a bottler does not need a hillside. Our borehole guide explains what a borehole is.
To bottle it in England, Defra says a producer needs an abstraction licence from the Environment Agency before taking any water. The local council then registers the business as a food establishment once it has checked the testing records, that the producer understands the rules, and that the premises meet hygiene conditions.
How does spring water differ from the other bottled types?
In 3 main ways, according to Defra's comparison of the 3 types of bottled water. Spring water must come from an underground source and be bottled at a spring or borehole, but it does not need official recognition, a stable composition or a composition label.
| Defra's comparison | Natural mineral water | Spring water | Bottled drinking water |
|---|---|---|---|
| Underground source, natural or drilled exit | Yes | Yes | No |
| Bottled at a spring or borehole | Yes | Yes | No |
| Keeps its "original purity" | Yes | No | No |
| Treatments permitted | 5 types | Any | Any |
| Official recognition from the local authority | Yes | No | No |
| Composition on the label | Yes | No | No |
All 3 types must be free of disease-causing parasites and bacteria and meet limits for chemical, microbial and radioactive substances.
What must a spring water label say?
The words "spring water", the name of the spring and the place where it is exploited. Defra says the label need not show the water's composition. Two further rules apply.
- Ozone treatment. If an authorised ozone-enriched air technique was used, the label must say "water subjected to an authorised ozone-enriched air oxidation technique". Defra says no wording is needed for other treatments.
- Place names. A brand name using a town or place is allowed only if the spring is there. Defra's example of a misleading one is a Somerset town name on water from a Devon spring.
Can spring water be filtered or treated?
Yes. For England, Defra's rules for local authorities say there are no forbidden treatments, but producers must follow rules for 5 particular treatments. The pages set out the rules for 2 of them.
- Ozone-enriched air oxidation. It can separate compounds of iron, manganese, sulphur and arsenic that occur naturally at source. The council must authorise it, and it must not disinfect the water by accident or alter its mineral, chemical and microbial composition, apart from iron, sulphur and manganese.
- Activated alumina. It can be used only to remove fluoride, and the council must give permission at least 3 months before the producer starts.
Our distilled, filtered and purified water guide explains those terms. We did not read the Welsh, Northern Irish or Scottish rules on treatments, so we cannot say they match England's.
Why might your own glass differ from the figures behind a spring water label?
Because the checks happen at the bottling plant, not in your kitchen. Defra's guidance says councils take samples at the point the water is bottled, and must check chemical and microbiological limits at least once a year. That is a snapshot of the water at bottling. It does not tell you what happens in a bottle after it leaves the plant, and a check at a bottling plant does not tell you what is in your own glass, or what comes out of your own tap.
The limit tables in Defra's pages also have gaps. They set maximums for substances such as nitrate (50 mg/l), copper (2 mg/l) and lead (10 µg/l), and give manganese an indicator value of 50 µg/l, but they do not list hardness. Spring water need not state its composition, so the label may not give you the numbers, although Defra notes that many producers choose to show them. You can compare a bottle with your tap yourself with a 20-in-1 test strip, and our hardness testing guide shows how.
A spring on your own land is a different case. Defra's pages describe producers bottling spring water for sale and say nothing we read about private supplies. Our well and borehole water guide covers those.
“If you want to know how a bottle compares with your tap, pour both into clean glasses on the same day and test them side by side. A label tells you where the water came from, not what is in your glass.”
How can you check your own water against the limits behind the label?
Fill a clean glass with the water, dip one strip, wait 30 to 60 seconds and match the pads to the chart. Three pads line up with figures in Defra's tables, and a fourth, hardness, lets you compare a bottle with your tap. We have not run strips on bottled spring water, so the right-hand column is WaterKit's own reading of the chart steps, and a strip result indicates a range rather than a precise figure.
| Check | Limit in Defra's pages (England) | What our chart can show |
|---|---|---|
| Nitrate | 50 mg/l | A reading of 25 or below indicates under the limit, 50 at or near it, and 100 or more above it |
| Copper | 2 mg/l | Steps at 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2 and 5 mg/l, so 2 sits at the limit |
| Manganese | Indicator of 50 µg/l (0.05 mg/l), monitored by the council | Steps at 0.05, 0.1, 0.5, 1, 2 and 5 mg/l, so 0.05 sits at the indicator value |
| Hardness | Not listed in the limit tables | Steps at 0, 25, 50, 100, 250 and 425, with the unit basis unconfirmed, so a reading beside your tap's is a rough comparison |
Some things are outside what the strip can do.
- Defra's tables also set limits for lead, mercury, chromium, fluoride and nitrite. The strip cannot read these at their limits, so a clear pad does not indicate that the water is under the limit. The same goes for iron, which Defra lists as an indicator at 200 µg/l, below the strip's first iron step. For lead, see our lead pipes guide.
- It cannot show pesticides, parasites or radioactive substances.
- The optional rapid bacteria test is a presence screen for coliforms, read after 24 to 48 hours, not a count. We do not claim it for bottled water, but it can be used on tap or private supply samples.
- A strip result is not a legal sample. Councils sample bottled spring water themselves at the point of bottling.
The free results checker opens in your browser when you scan the QR code on the colour chart, or at our results portal, with no app or account needed.
Best pack: 20 strips, enough to test your tap and a couple of bottled waters side by side and again later, £5.99 (or £10.99 with a bacteria test), with free 2nd Class delivery on every order. See the kit
Your spring water questions
What is spring water? What is a spring water? Whats spring water?
Water from an underground source tapped at a natural or drilled exit and bottled there, according to Defra. It must be free of disease-causing parasites and bacteria and come from a protected source.
Where does spring water come from? Where is spring water from?
From an underground source, either a natural spring or a drilled borehole. The label must name the spring and the place where it is exploited.
Is spring water good for you? Is natural spring water good for you?
In the Defra pages we read, nothing rates spring water as better or worse for health. They set the conditions it must meet and the limits it is tested against, and say nothing about benefits.
Is spring water safe to drink? Can you drink spring water?
Defra's guidance for England says spring water must be free of disease-causing parasites and bacteria and meet chemical, pesticide, microbiological and radioactive limits, and that councils take samples at the point of bottling. A spring on private land is not what those pages describe.
Is spring water better than tap water?
The Defra pages we read compare only the 3 types of bottled water, not tap. Our tap versus bottled water guide looks at both.
Is spring water fizzy? What is still spring water? Is spring water still water? Is sparkling spring water good for you?
Spring water is defined by its source, not by bubbles. Defra lists bottles, tetra packs, cartons, coolers and pouches as ways to sell it, and the pages we read do not define "still" or "sparkling" or rate either.
Is spring water distilled? Is spring water the same as distilled water?
Not by definition. Defra defines spring water by its underground source and bottling at source, and the pages we read do not mention distillation. Our distilled water guide explains what distilled means.
Is spring water filtered? Is spring water purified?
It can be. Defra says there are no forbidden treatments in England, with rules for ozone-enriched air oxidation and activated alumina. We found no official definition of "purified" in the pages we read.
How is spring water made?
It is not made. It is collected at a spring or borehole and bottled there, under the treatment and labelling rules above.
Is spring water a pure substance?
The rules do not ask for that. They set maximum limits for substances in the water, such as nitrate at 50 mg/l, rather than requiring none.
Why doesn't spring water freeze?
The Defra pages we read do not mention freezing, and nothing in them says spring water cannot freeze. We found no UK official guidance on this in the sources we read.
Sources
- Defra, Compare types of bottled water (published 28 May 2020; the 3 types and the comparison table; read 29 October 2026).
- Defra, Spring water: rules for local authorities (published 16 September 2020, last updated 9 April 2026; what counts as spring water, registration, limits, treatments, labelling, ongoing checks; read 29 October 2026).
- Defra, Spring water: how to produce and label (published 28 May 2020, last updated 29 June 2026; abstraction licence, steps to register, transport rule; read 29 October 2026).
- WaterKit, Water Test Kit (20-in-1 strip, 30 to 60 second read, optional rapid coliform test read after 24 to 48 hours, 20 strips £5.99, free 2nd Class delivery on every order) and results portal. The strip-chart column and the comments on expected readings are WaterKit's own reading of the colour chart steps.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.