Microbial Diversity of a Groundwater and a Bottled Natural Mineral Water

The current perception of the autochthonous microbial diversity present in bottled natural mineral waters (NMW) sold in Europe is based mainly on traditional culture-dependent methods. In order to retrieve more reliable information about the microbial diversity and dynamics at source, after bottling and through six months of storage of a commercial NMW, we applied a two-pronged approach, based on culture-dependent methods and on molecular-based techniques.