Nestlé Waters faces Perrier production stoppage, French media report

"The most famous sparkling water brand is under threat of losing its natural mineral water label, which has made its reputation for over a century," wrote the French daily Le Monde. Keystone-SDA

Nestlé Waters faces a possible halt to its production of Perrier mineral water in the south of France due to health risks, according to a confidential report published on Monday by the French newspaper Le Monde and Radio France.

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“The most famous sparkling water brand is under threat of losing its natural mineral water label, which has made its reputation for over a century,” said the French daily Le Monde. The newspaper added that “a confidential report from the Occitanie regional health agency (ARS) leaves little room for any other outcome” and that the “blow could be fatal for Perrier”.

Following an inspection carried out at the end of May at Perrier’s only packaging site in the Gard region, the state agency says that Nestlé Waters, the brand’s owner, should seriously consider “stopping production of mineral water at the Vergèze site”, due to the regularly degraded sanitary quality of its catchments and, in particular, a virological risk.

The ARS thus “invites” the subsidiary of the Swiss food giant to “strategically consider another possible food use for the current mineral water catchments”, on condition that “additional health safety guarantees” are provided. When contacted by Le Monde and Radio France, Nestlé Waters said it was “not in a position to comment”, as it was “not aware of the final report”.

Waiting for the Prefect’s green light

The future of the brand and its production site in Vergèze, which employs some 1,000 people, is dependent on the decision of the Gard prefecture, which must rule on Nestlé’s application in October 2023 to renew the operating permit for the “Perrier spring”. When contacted, the prefecture indicated that the decision could be made in the “first half of 2025” after receipt of an “opinion by approved public health hydrogeologists”, in addition to the ARS report.

In April, the Gard prefect suspended the operation of one of the seven water catchments following an episode of contamination by bacteria of faecal origin. Nestlé then announced that it had destroyed some 3 million bottles “as a precaution”.

“Presented at the time by Nestlé and the prefecture as a one-off event linked to intense rainfall, this situation was in fact the consequence of a general deterioration in the quality of the groundwater exploited by Nestlé at Vergèze,” said Le Monde.

Last January, the two media organisations revealed that for several years Nestlé Waters had been using prohibited treatments – microfiltration, UV filters and activated carbon – to deal with bacterial and chemical contamination at some of its wells in Vergèze, as well as at its Vosges site, where Hépar, Contrex and Vittel water is drawn from.

The French government has been aware of some of these practices since at least 2020. Nestlé has admitted to using prohibited treatments, also for Henniez mineral water in Switzerland. In order to shed light on the matter, the French Senate launched a commission of inquiry into “the practices of bottled water manufacturers and the responsibilities of public authorities in the failure to monitor their activities”.

According to the ARS inspection report, the risk of fraud persists. “Nothing prevents the treatment of natural mineral water by unauthorised processes used for other types of water,” it said. Its inspection mission refers to a “virological risk” (adenovirus, norovirus, hepatitis A) for consumers. “Microfilters have no retention effect on viruses,” say the inspectors, who add that “the operator has never demonstrated the presence of these viruses in the water”.

Translated from French by DeepL/sb

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