Mineral water scandal: an investigation opened against Nestlé Waters which resorted to illegal treatments

Une enquête va être ouverte à l'encontre de Nestlé Waters. MAX PPP – Alain Delpey

Nestlé admits to having used treatments to disinfect its Perrier, Vittel, Hépar and Contrex brand waters. However, regulations prohibit any disinfection of mineral water. The opening of this investigation follows a report from the Regional Health Agency.

A preliminary investigation was opened by the Epinal public prosecutor's office for deception against Nestlé Waters, suspected of having used illegal treatments to purify its mineral waters, we learned on Wednesday from the public prosecutor.

The opening of this investigation, on an unspecified date, follows a report from the Regional Health Agency (ARS), specified to l'AFP the prosecutor Frédéric Nahon, confirming information from World and Radio France.

Treatments prohibited by regulations

The treatments used by Nestlé are prohibited by regulations. Mineral waters must naturally be of high microbiological quality (unlike tap water which is disinfected before becoming drinkable). Nestlé Waters used these treatments. The use of ultraviolet light and active carbon filters is in fact not authorized in France, and Nestlé Waters acknowledges having pursued this practice illegally until, in 2021, finding and proposing to the authorities a new microfiltering technique., 

Sophie Dubois, director of Nestlé Waters France, recently justified this practice to Midi Libre:"We must both protect the environment of our sources, and maintain the characteristics of our waters. This requires permanent and quite complex adaptation in view of climatic episodes, sometimes floods, sometimes drought. Our plan therefore aims to be more resilient, to bring us back into compliance with the regulatory framework on natural waters, a framework that we may have, in the past, lost sight of without however # 39;at no time is the food security of our waters called into question".