This is not the first time that the quality of water bottled in France has been called into question. In a first investigation from January 2024 by the newspaper The World with the investigation unit of Radio France, we learned that several manufacturers, including Nestlé, which owns the Perrier brand, would have hidden the existence of pollutants in their sources, then purified by prohibited treatments.
The scandal does not abate for the Perrier brand, which is once again under attack. According to a new report from the regional health agency (ARS) consulted by The World and the investigation unit of Radio France, the water resources of the Vergèze factory located in Gard would be polluted, requiring “a shutdown of production”.
What does this mean for consumers? Is it dangerous to consume it?
Presence of pesticides, pollutants and fecal matter
For Esther Crauser-Delbourg, economist specializing in water issues and co-founder of the consultancy firm Water Wiser, we must not give in to panic: “What Perrier is criticized for is not having marketed polluted water, but having filtered it to make it consumable. » Because of this “hidden” filtration according to our expert, the water loses its “mineral” qualification, the specificities of which come from the source from which it is drawn. So it’s more a question of the label than the product.
However, how can we explain these pollution problems? For the environmentalist senator from Paris Antoinette Guhl, who participated in a senatorial mission in October on the control of mineral water treatments, this is a problem specific to Perrier sources. “These are shallow water tables and less protected by soil, and which are therefore more sensitive than others to external pollution. We therefore find pesticides, pollutants and fecal matter there. »
Pollution making the treatment of this water compulsory, which then raises the question of traceability, a major problem in the Perrier factories according to the senator: “Two different waters are produced in these Perrier factories: natural mineral water, drawn directly from the source, and Maison Perrier water, treated. »
Today, the main question is therefore which of these two waters is used to produce Perrier. Difficult to determine according to Antoinette Guhl. When she went to this factory to carry out checks with agents from the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control, she assures that it was impossible for them to know which water was being controlled.
Does mineral water have a future?
For Julie Mendret, lecturer on water treatment at the University of Montpellier, the more global question of the French mineral water production model must be asked. “The quality of our springs and groundwater is declining, which forces manufacturers to treat them more and more. »
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It is then impossible to retain the mineral water or spring water label. For the expert, we must abandon the “heresy” of the current model and favor tap water for all. The only “advantage” of mineral water being that it comes from a source, if conditions now require it to be treated as much as tap water, it is essential, Julie Mendret, to do without it, to further avoid plastic pollution and transport.
