Does Voss Water Have Microplastics? Glass vs Plastic Voss

Has Voss water been tested for microplastics?

Not in any published study we could find. The brand-level study everyone quotes is Mason and colleagues’ 2018 survey for Orb Media, which tested 259 bottles from 11 brands: Aquafina, Dasani, Evian, Nestlé Pure Life, San Pellegrino, Aqua, Bisleri, Epura, Gerolsteiner, Minalba and Wahaha. It found an average of 325 particles per litre across all of them, most of them small fragments. Voss isn’t on the list. (We covered what it found for Evian, which was.)

The 2024 Columbia study that made headlines for about 240,000 particles per litre, roughly 90% of them nanoplastics, tested “three different brands acquired at the same time from a large retailer”, and deliberately didn’t name them. The authors note that all three used reverse osmosis. Voss’s own 2011 report said its water was bottled “without undergoing filtration”, so it probably wasn’t one of the three. That’s our inference, not a finding.

Voss doesn’t mention microplastics or PFAS anywhere on its US or global sites. So the honest answer is “not measured”. Because every bottled water that has been measured contained particles, “not measured” shouldn’t be read as “clean”.

Is Voss in a glass bottle microplastic-free?

This is the reason most people pay the glass premium, and the evidence doesn’t back it up. Three separate studies compared glass-bottled and plastic-bottled water directly:

Voss was not in any of these studies. The error bars are as wide as the averages, so treat the results as “glass is not reliably cleaner”, not as a ranking.

The pattern is consistent: the glass wall sheds nothing, but a glass bottle still has a closure, and the closure is often coated, painted or lined with polymer. In the French study, the plastic particles in glass-bottled drinks were the same colour and composition as the paint on the outside of the caps. Soft drinks and beer in glass were worse than water, at around 100 particles per litre. When the researchers blew the caps clean with air and rinsed them before bottling, contamination dropped from about 287 to 87 particles per litre, so the fix belongs at the factory.

Critics have questioned the French results. A 2025 comment from the Food Packaging Forum’s scientists argued that counting per litre exaggerates contamination in small packages, and that the study didn’t account for filling lines. Those are fair points about the size of the effect. They don’t rescue the idea that glass guarantees plastic-free water. For more on the cap mechanism, see do plastic bottle caps shed microplastics?

What are Voss caps made of?

Voss doesn’t say. We checked its US and global product pages, FAQs, sustainability pages and quality report, and none states the cap material, whether it has a liner, or whether it’s painted. The only thing the US FAQ says about caps is that Voss is “unable to provide replacement caps”. Supplier listings online claim various materials, but those aren’t Voss’s own specifications, so we don’t repeat them.

That’s the key unknown for glass Voss. If the closure is uncoated metal with an inert seal, the glass bottle should be one of the cleaner ways to buy water. If it’s painted or polymer-lined, the French and German results suggest it may be no better than PET. Voss could settle this by publishing its closure specification.

Is Voss water actually from Norway?

Some of it. Voss’s US site says its water comes “from artesian sources deep beneath the ground”, and its water quality report has three columns: VOSS Still (Norway), VOSS Still (US East) and VOSS Still (US West). Voss’s About page says it is “identifying suppliers and water sources closer to our customers”. A 2023 trade report described a co-packing deal for Voss’s western US operations in Arizona and California, covering glass and PET.

Retrieved 23 September 2026. A July 2025 capture of the same page listed different US figures, and Voss’s global site lists pH 5.8. The full report is available only by email request.

This doesn’t make any Voss unsafe; it means “Voss” isn’t one water with one profile. It also explains why the label differs by market. The global site calls Voss Still “natural mineral water”, while the US 800 ml glass label says “artesian water”. US rules reserve “mineral water” for water with at least 250 parts per million of dissolved solids, and Voss has far less.

Is Voss plastic bottle made from recycled plastic?

In some markets. Voss’s US timeline says it “introduced 100% recycled PET bottles across EU, Australia and Middle East” in 2022, and the global store sells “VOSS Still RPET” in 250 and 500 ml. For the US, Voss sells 500 and 850 ml PET, and its FAQ says the bottles are “BPA-free” (PET is made without BPA anyway). It mentions 100% recycled plastic only for VOSS+. We found no first-party statement that standard US Voss Still comes in recycled PET.

Recycled PET is still PET, and the research on whether it sheds more is mixed. A 2022 review found higher migration of antimony and BPA reported for recycled PET, while a 2025 study of six Croatian brands found more microplastics in water from virgin PET. Neither is a reason to choose one plastic Voss over another.

What makes bottled water shed more plastic?

Wherever your Voss comes from, the same few things drive particle counts in any bottled water:

• Opening and closing. A 2019 study opened PET bottles with plastic caps up to 100 times and found a “considerable increase” of particles on the bottleneck and cap. After 100 openings “the effect was impressive, especially on caps”, and cap abrasion varied a lot between brands.
• Heat. In a 2026 study of eight US brands, nanoparticles rose 9.29-fold after heating to 60 °C with shaking, from both the bottle and the cap. Voss says its water “must never be higher than 86° F (30° C)”, ideally kept between 39 and 68 °F. See water bottles left in a hot car.
• Time in PET. Antimony, a PET catalyst, climbs slowly in storage. German waters sold in both formats had up to 30 times more antimony in PET than in glass, though a US study of PET-bottled waters found levels well below the 6 ppb limit at room temperature.
• Sunlight. Voss says its water “must not be stored under UV”.

Imported water spends more time in transit and warehouses than local water. That’s a reason to follow Voss’s own storage rules, not to panic.

Is Voss water good for you?

Voss is low in minerals: 36 to 99 mg of dissolved solids per litre depending on the source, against several hundred for many mineral waters. That makes it neutral-tasting, but it isn’t a meaningful source of calcium or magnesium. Voss’s US-listed pH ranges from 6.2 to 8.5 by source, so claims about Voss being alkaline or acidic depend on which bottle you have. Like all US bottled water, it has to meet FDA standards. Nothing about Voss makes it a health drink or a risk. The microplastic question is about the packaging, and that’s the same for every bottled brand.

Voss vs Evian, Fiji and Essentia: which has fewer microplastics?

On the evidence, nobody can rank them. Evian was tested in 2018, in two lots that differed fourfold. Fiji, Essentia and Voss have no published brand-level microplastic count. The factors you can see on the shelf matter more than the brand: bottle and cap material, how long and how hot it was stored, and how many times you reopen it. See our bottled water brands ranked and the individual checks for Fiji, Essentia and Smartwater.

What’s the lowest-plastic way to drink water instead?

1. Filter tap water with a certified filter. Look for NSF/ANSI 401 certification that lists microplastics reduction. It’s the only certification that covers them. No filter is certified for nanoplastics. See water filters compared.
2. Carry it in steel or glass with a simple lid you can clean. See the best glass water bottles.
3. If you buy Voss anyway, buy it for taste, keep it cool and out of sunlight, and don’t refill single-use bottles. Glass is worth it if you reuse the bottle, not as a guarantee of plastic-free water.
4. Don’t reopen one PET bottle all day. Pour into a glass. The cap and neck are where friction happens.