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The content of anions and cations (as minerals) in tap water can positively and negatively affect taste. Undesirable tap water taste can arise from levels of anions and cations above or below regulatory limits, from minerals without regulatory limits, and from a lack of minerals in water. However, no thorough investigation of the interactions of the human sense of taste, drinking water quality, and water treatment has been conducted. Tap water taste has, historically, not caught the attention of the drinking water industry at large. However, it is becoming an important issue because water treatment techniques such as reverse osmosis are gaining more applicability and can strongly influence tap water taste. Therefore, drinking water practitioners, designers, and regulators need to better understand how water quality and water treatment can affect the taste of water.
Burlingame et al. (Tue,) studied this question.