Classification of bottled waters marketed and consumed in Algeria through statistical approaches

Abstract

Abstract The main objective of this work consists of classifying 30 brands of water bottled and marketed in Algeria, based on their physicochemical compositions and their comparison with some foreign brands recognized in their countries or on a world scale. Relevant to this, descriptive statistics, as well as hierarchical ascendant classification (HAC) and principal component analysis (PCA), were used to analyse the data. The results of this study highlighted a similarity between some Algerian brands and other foreign brands of water in terms of mineral content. Moreover, the results obtained by using PCA and HAC allowed us to divide the sample of Algerian mineral waters into three distinct groups, each with similar physicochemical characteristics. The first group (Soummam, Manbaa Al Ghezlane, Mouzaia, Amane, Djmila, and Hayet) is characterized by very high levels of mineral salts compared to the other brands. The second group (Guedila, Tazliza, Arwa, Baniane, Saida, Ifri, Messerghine, Sfid, Mansourah, Batna, Mileza, S. Rached, Dhaya, Qniaa, and Lejdar) is distinguished from the first group by its average mineralization. Finally, the third group (Fezguia, Nestlé, Ovitale, L. Khedidja, A. Bouglez, Ayris, Righia, Togi, and Toudja) presents a very low mineralization.