Vergèze (France) (AFP) – Regional French authorities ordered Nestle on Wednesday to remove a system that filters Perrier and to renew its authorisation to call it natural mineral water, marking the latest turn in a saga that has ensnared the government. The senior public official in France’s southern Gard region, where the source for Perrier is located and where the water is bottled, said the order does not imply any risk for consumers.
But having to remove the filtering system within two months and obtain reauthorisation to call Perrier natural mineral water was another blow for its owner Nestle Waters. The unit of the Swiss food and drinks conglomerate has been under pressure for some time over Perrier and other brands as EU regulations strictly limit what treatments are allowed for what is marketed as natural mineral water.
A French magistrate opened earlier this year a fraud inquiry into Nestle and rival bottler Sources Alma over suspicions of illegal processing of mineral waters that command a premium price following complaints by consumer groups. In 2024, Nestle Waters admitted using banned filters and ultra-violet treatment on mineral waters, which must be processed naturally by law. It paid a two-million-euro ($2.2-million) fine to avoid legal action over the use of illegal water sources and filtering, and said at the time the replacement filters were approved by the government and that its water is “pure”.
However, experts at the regional health authority judged the microfiltering system in place wasn’t compliant with regulations, prompting Wednesday’s order. The possibility that the government may have turned a blind eye to illegal filtering practices has been under investigation by a French senate committee following media reports that the prime minister’s office and president’s office had in 2023 recommended letting Nestle carry on with the microfiltering of water despite warnings from the government health service.
France’s former director general of health, Jerome Salomon, had called for the suspension of Nestle’s operations permit at its sites that produce Vittel and other brands in the Vosges region of eastern France and Perrier at Vergeze in the southern Gard region. President Emmanuel Macron has denied giving in to lobbying by the Swiss food giant.
“One illegal treatment has been replaced by another. The government, which had approved Nestle Waters’s transformation plan, is heavily at fault,” said socialist Senator Alexandre Ouizille, who is leading the Senate investigation, which is due to be published on May 19. Foodwatch, one of the consumer groups that had spoken out publicly about the practices of bottlers, said Wednesday “this decision goes in the right direction” and expressed hope that the investigation underway will “shed complete light on the actions committed by the multinational and its executives.”
© 2024 AFP
