“There is room for further investigation”: Foodwatch files two new complaints in the treated mineral water affair

The scandal of treated mineral waters relaunched judicially ? The Foodwatch association will file a complaint Wednesday in Paris to obtain that an investigating judge look into the practices presented as fraudulent by the giant Nestlé and the Sources Alma group concerning the treatment of their bottled water.

In January, Radio France and Le Monde revealed the use in France for many years of prohibited treatments to purify mineral water sold in bottles, notably by Nestlé Waters.

The group had admitted to having used prohibited disinfection systems (UV lamp, activated carbon) to maintain "food safety" of its Vosges waters (Vittel, Contrex and Hépar).

A "massive fraud that affects the entire world

Foodwatch had filed an initial complaint in Paris targeting Nestlé Waters and Sources Alma (Cristaline, St-Yorre, Vichy, etc.), transferred by the capital's public prosecutor's office to that of Epinal, which had already opened a preliminary investigation for deception targeting the Swiss giant.

This investigation ended with the signing on September 10 of an agreement (a Cjip, Judicial Convention of Public Interest) between Nestlé and the Epinal Judicial Court, by which the group agreed to pay a fine of 2 million euros and to “repair the ecological impact” in exchange for the abandonment of all criminal proceedings for the acts committed in the Vosges.

On Wednesday morning, the consumer protection association announced to several media outlets including AFP that it would file two new complaints in Paris the same day, this time with civil action, which generally allows for the appointment of an investigating judge.

For Foodwatch, this judicial agreement in Epinal came “to sweep under the carpet any public action against Nestlé Waters Grand Est” and “allows the multinational to get away with it by taking out the checkbook” in a “massive fraud case that has affected the entire world for decades”.

The complaints once again target Nestlé and the Sources Alma group, which notably produces Cristaline, the best-selling water in France, and which is already the subject of a preliminary investigation by the Cusset (Allier) prosecutor's office.

The Alma group had indicated to AFP that these criminal proceedings concerned “old facts and isolated specific to certain production sites" and assured that its flagship brand, Cristaline, was not affected.

"Complacency of the State"

For Foodwatch, there is room for further investigation concerning the two groups: “injection of carbon dioxide into the “naturally sparkling” Chateldon water; use of iron sulphate to reduce the presence of arsenic at the St-Yorre and Vichy Célestins sites; organised fraud using illegal treatments for decades at Nestlé; opacity on the health risk".

The association also questions "the complacency of the State in this affair" which "raises the question of its responsibility".

Initial alerts had already been issued on this subject: in November 2022, Médiacités had indicated that the fraud squad was investigating the production of St-Yorre, Vichy Célestins and Chateldon waters, owned by Sources Alma, and in particular “the hidden addition of industrial carbon dioxide and a banned chemical substance”.

In July 2022, a report from the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (IGAS), kept secret until last January, had also alerted the administration to this use of banned treatments to purify mineral water, which was estimated at around a third of brands in France, a low range given that such practices are “deliberately hidden”.

Is it even older ? Mediapart mentioned another investigation report from last April and produced by the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF), according to which Nestlé Waters had used these prohibited treatments for its three Vosges mineral waters for at least fifteen years.

The profit provided to the company was estimated in this report at 3 billion euros, a figure contested by Nestlé Waters.

Still in July, it was the European Commission that also criticized France, estimating in an audit that the system set up in France to control mineral waters in bottle is tainted with "serious deficiencies" and does not guarantee the absence of fraudulent products on the shelves.