Does Gerolsteiner Contain PFAS?

PAN Europe, working with BUND for the German-brand portion of the study, tested 19 European mineral water samples for trifluoroacetic acid (TFA). Sampling took place in summer 2024, with confirmatory retesting in autumn 2024, and the findings were published in December 2024.

TFA is classified as an ultra-short-chain PFAS ("forever chemical") breakdown product, linked in part to the environmental degradation of certain refrigerants and pesticides. It is not the same substance as the long-chain PFOA/PFOS compounds most PFAS drinking-water regulations were originally written around.

Gerolsteiner was named among 10 of the 19 tested mineral waters with quantifiable TFA residues. Researchers compared results against two regulatory benchmarks: 100 nanograms per liter (the existing EU limit for pesticide metabolites in drinking water) and 500 nanograms per liter (a PFAS limit proposed in the EU Drinking Water Directive, set to take effect in 2026). Across the full sample set, 7 of 19 waters exceeded the 100 ng/L threshold and 1 exceeded the 500 ng/L threshold.

What we could not confirm: the publicly available reporting on this study does not break out Gerolsteiner's specific TFA concentration in nanograms per liter, so we cannot state here whether Gerolsteiner's result fell above or below either threshold — only that it was among the brands with a quantifiable (non-zero) detection. Readers who want the exact figure should consult PAN Europe's or BUND's original published report.

PAN Europe's own assessment, as reported alongside the findings, stated that the TFA contamination "was not the fault of the mineral water companies, which may have no way to prevent or remove TFA contamination" — framing this as a broader environmental and regulatory issue (largely tied to fluorinated pesticide and refrigerant breakdown products entering groundwater) rather than a manufacturing or bottling failure specific to any one brand.

We are not stating that Gerolsteiner is "PFAS-free" — the independent testing summarized above found a quantifiable TFA detection in this brand. We are also not stating that Gerolsteiner exceeded a specific regulatory limit, because we do not have brand-specific concentration data to support that claim. If Gerolsteiner or an independent lab publishes brand-specific TFA/PFAS figures with test dates and detection limits, we will update this page and its confidence level accordingly.