We came across this post on Telegram:

According to the author, there is a theory going around that the government has tampered with Dasani water, with the water unable to freeze due to the addition of this mysterious “ingredient”. In the video, a person is shown purchasing a bottle of Dasani water and a bottle of Kirkland branded water, then putting them both in the freezer. After 8 hours, it shows that the Kirkland water had frozen, however the Dasani water remained liquid.

When we conducted our research, we found that rumours around bottled water not being able to freeze were nothing novel, with Dasani and Aquafina, owned by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo respectively being the main targets of these conspiracy theories due to their link to these large corporations.

An article from Business Insider investigated these conspiracy theories about Dasani, explaining that there is nothing sketchy about the ingredients present in the water. According to its nutrition label, Dasani has magnesium sulfate, potassium chloride, and salt added to the water, and these minerals are added solely for taste. The article also consulted David Sedlak, co-director of the Berkeley Water Center who said that these factors can contribute to a person’s like or dislike of the water and people tend to prefer certain mixtures of salts, with other bottled waters having similar ingredients to Dasani.

Does Dasani freeze?

Due to the lack of information present from the video found on Telegram, we decided to conduct an experiment of our own, using Polar and Dasani bottled water and leaving them in the freezer to determine if Dasani water would not freeze. After leaving the water in the freezer for a period of time, we found that both bottles had frozen, with the Dasani having been frozen to a greater extent than the bottle of Polar.

Based on this evidence then, there is nothing to suggest that Dasani bottled water has additional ingredients present that prevent it from freezing. Pending a detailed and conclusive scientific analysis of the contents of the Dasani water, we rate the claim that the government put something inside Dasani water to keep it from freezing as likely false.