The Foodwatch association has announced that it will be lodging a complaint with the Paris judicial court on Wednesday, February 21, in connection with the non-compliant mineral water affair. At the end of January, a joint investigation by public broadcaster Radio France's investigative unit and Le Monde revealed that the bottled water groups Nestlé Waters (known for Perrier, Contrex, Hépar, Vittel and more) and Alma (Chateldon, Vichy-Célestins, St-Yorre, etc.) had used non-compliant treatments (UV filters, activated carbon, microfiltration). While these purification techniques are authorized for tap water or water labeled as "made drinkable by treatment," they are prohibited for water labeled as "spring water" or "natural mineral water." Spring and mineral waters are supposed to come from underground aquifers preserved from all contamination, whether chemical and bacterial.
According to numerous confidential documents from various government departments – including a report by the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (IGAS), which had been submitted to the government in July 2022 – that were consulted by Radio France and Le Monde, chronic or sporadic bacterial or pesticide contamination over many years led some bottling plants to systematically implement these treatments. In its report, which was never made public, the IGAS estimates that at least 30% of water brands produced in France have undergone such non-compliant purification techniques.
Although the government was informed of these infringements as early as the summer of 2021, it has kept this information confidential. These breaches of the regulations have not been made public, neither to consumers nor to the European Commission and member states, though it is obliged to do so under European Directive 2009/54/EC.
'French complacency'
According to Foodwatch, which investigates the harmful practices of the agricultural and food industries, these practices constitute nine breaches of the European directive on natural mineral waters and spring water, the French consumer code and the French public health code. "Nestlé Waters and Sources Alma led their consumers to believe that they were selling them natural mineral water, in line with what this implies in terms of health benefits and nutritional qualities, when in fact they were selling them formerly contaminated water that had been illegally treated," said François Lafforgue, Foodwatch's lawyer. "These techniques have necessarily had an impact on the water's essential constituents, since they had the effect of purifying it to make it drinkable."
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