Water quality and the effect on food

Hey, i couldn't find alot of information about water quality/ppm/ph levels and the result on food. I'm very passionate about coffee, where in the last years a trend emerged about using the perfect water for the perfect cup. I could not find something similiar about cooking, except a bit of information that alot of kitchens use waterfiltration systems. Is there any information about the effect of water on food? Especially in regards to stocks and soups. For coffee i mineralize pure water for certain results, so i assume the same should be true for stocks.

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Matthew_Snyder_68770

All I know is that I have to street park my car in a spot that's in the line of fire of our front sprinklers, and it leaves milky white spots on the paint that have to be pretty aggressively buffed to remove. That has to have an effect on food taste.

fisher23

I use a reverse osmosis filter for all the water we drink and cook with. It filters everything out, and unfortunately even the minerals. But it's nothing but H20.

tshewman

Like @John Fisher, I have an RO system it's an unfortunate necessity (some of the worst water in the country here) I'm uncertain how I could remineralize it with decent success.

HammeredChef_DEFINITELY_does_NOT_work_at_22134

I avoid all the confusion and expense of clarifying, purifying, remineralizing, Reverse Osmoisivizing, etc ................I use White wine....except where the color is not relevant...then I use Red

julian.lo

I'm 99% sure that there is a brief discussion about this in Christain Puglisi's Relae, but it's fairly anecdotal and doesn't go into the super scientific aspect of things. I think that he found that the water quality does have an effect on stocks and whatnot (makes sense) so he installed a water filtration system at the restaurant. I could totally be remembering wrong though.

Johannes_Meintrup_405714

yes i have the book and that is the only thing i found, and they only talk about the water filtration system they use is the same as coffee collective, and i know most top coffee shops use reverse osmosis and then re-mineralize it or something similiar. if i remember he just wrote they have the same filtration system, but that would mean he uses almost completely de-mineralized water which i would find odd

tshewman

They say they use plain filtered water in their stocks and did a comparison vs tap water and said they would never go back. we also have the addition of FL and other unnecessary ....stuff in the water across the US.

Martin_411586

Good question!
I suppose it would be heavily influenced by where in the world you are. For instance: in a lot of Spain and Italy's more rural areas, the water is heavily chlorinated. Much less so in the Netherlands, where I live.. there's hardly any chlorine added to the water. The same goes for calcium and magnesium carbonate, which isn't added to water I suppose but has an effect on the taste and other properties nonetheless.

See if you can find an analysis of the local water supply. It's readily accessible here, for instance: https://www.vitens.nl/over-water/waterkwaliteit/-/media/files/waterkwaliteitsoverzicht/WZ02Pb-Leidsche-Rijn.pdf?la=nl-nl

It's in Dutch, but the symbols (Ca, Mg, F, etc) are universal so that shouldn't be a problem

Demixl_1012411

The Influence of Water Ouality on Food

The impurities in water will cause a lot of impact on the food quality, mainly including the deterioration of

food color, the discoloration, the coloration, the abnormal odor, the abnormal smell, the turbidity, the

precipitation, the crystallization, the corruption and some others.

Chromaticity and Turbidity.The chromaticity and the turbidity of water are the basic indexes to test the

water quality, which are also the most obvious indexes of sense organs. If the two indexes exceed the

allowed figures, it will cause the phenomenons that the product is precipitated, the carbonation is difficult

and it is also easy to have the spouting (carbonic acid drink), which will affect the chromaticity of products.

2672Wujie et al. / Procedia Environmental Sciences 10 ( 2011 ) 2671 – 2676

Abnormal Smell.Because of the physical or chemical factors, many of the water have the abnormal

odor itself, which is easy to affect the flavor of the finished products.

Hardness.The hardness of water mainly refers to the concentration of the calcium and magnesium ions

in water. The calcium and magnesium ions will produce the carbonate precipitation in the heating process.

And when the hardness is higher, it will cause a lot of problems such as the discoloration of finished

products, the turbidity, the precipitation, the change of flavor, the reduction of water binding capacity

(meat), the hardening (meat, bean products) and so on.

Enjoythis5_1017670

Freshwater resources became in the last decade incredibly low due to population growth and global climate change. The presence of fresh water is essential in the production of food. The objective of food production must be based on the safe and secure products delivered to people. Though, water used in cooking is an agent of transmission of different diseases and infections, due to chemicals, decaying vegetation, algae and unregulated substances. All mentioned interact with components of food, thus poisoning and reducing it’s quality and taste. I have read somewhere that water filters reduce considerably it’s bad tasting and chemicals. All in all, protect your family and buy a filter from which will improve the quality of water: purewaterguide.net.