Perrier factory in Gard: a report denounces a health risk

Will the Perrier brand lose its natural mineral water designation? After the revelations of the investigation unit of Radio France and the newspaper Le Monde in January 2024 on the use of prohibited treatments on its Hépar, Vittel, Contrex and Perrier brands, the Nestlé Waters group assured that it had removed all its illegal treatments and put in place transformation plans for its factories to put an end to the fraud, while asserting that “the health safety” of its products had “always been guaranteed”. An inspection report from the Regional Health Agency (ARS) of Occitanie, dated August 30, 2024, to which we were able to have access undermines this version. Its conclusions are damning.

This document, established after the unannounced inspection last spring of Nestlé's Perrier factory in Gard, shows that the quality of the water resources exploited is still not sufficient to produce natural mineral water, which must be “microbiologically healthy” and “kept free from any risk of pollution” according to regulations. The report is alarmed by a potential virological risk for consumers, known to the government since 2022, and envisages for the first time “a cessation of the production of natural mineral water on the Vergèze site”. He invites the Swiss multinational, as courteously as firmly, to “strategically question” another possible food use of its catchments, “under conditions which would provide guarantees of health safety, which will prove essential”.

A continuing risk of fraud

It was at the request of the prefect of Gard, Jérôme Bonet, that the Vergèze factory was inspected on May 30 by agents of ARS Occitanie. In his mission letter, which the investigation unit of Radio France and Le Monde were able to consult, the prefect asks to “monitor the proper dismantling of prohibited treatments” and to “verify the traceability and manufacturing practices of the products”.

The ARS Occitanie report notes that, although certain unauthorized processing operations have been withdrawn, the risk of fraud persists. Indeed, the inspectors emphasize that “the conditions under which the inspection was carried out did not make it possible to ensure that there was no other unauthorized processing device hidden in the factory”. They note also that “on a technical level, nothing prevents the treatment of natural mineral water by unauthorized processes used for other types of water”. This concerns in particular treatments applied to drinking water which does not benefit from the designation natural mineral water.

“Unacceptable” contaminations

Still according to the ARS report, quality controls carried out by the Nestlé group present microbiological results “unusual for natural mineral water”, with “water instability”, and the presence of micro-organisms in raw water, which is strictly prohibited by the regulations on natural mineral waters.

Last April, production from one of the plant's wells had been stopped following an episode of contamination by fecal germs, which could cause illness in humans, which led to the destruction by Nestlé of three million bottles of Perrier. According to the report, a cleaning operation carried out on two other wells during the same period revealed a new episode of contamination by this type of germ. ARS agents believe that these “bacterial contaminations”, although “punctual”, are “unacceptable for natural mineral water”.

Filters that mask water quality

To compensate for the insufficient quality of its water resource and the removal of the filters which made it possible to purify it, the Perrier factory has in return greatly strengthened its microfiltration treatment system, that is to say thanks to filters whose mesh size is very tight (up to 0.2 microns). But if these microfilters allow bottles of Perrier sold commercially to have a high compliance rate, they are “not regulatory” in the eyes of ARS agents, because their disinfectant effect is “proven”.

Clearly, thanks to these microfilter treatments, the Nestlé group continues, as it has done for years, to mask the contamination of its raw water in order to be able to market it as natural mineral water, even though the latter are supposed to come from of preserved underground resources.

Inspectors do not hesitate to speak of a “deviation” from the standard, that is to say “non-compliance with legally enforceable legal or regulatory obligations”.

A possible “virological risk”, neglected alerts

More worrying, the report also points out, for consumers, a possible “virological risk” (adenovirus, norovirus, hepatitis A). Because as the inspectors detail, the microfilters still used by Nestlé “have no retention effect on viruses”, while “the mission [d’inspection] was not the recipient of a detailed virus control plan”. This viral risk, already highlighted by the investigation unit of Radio France and Le Monde last January, seems to have been neglected by the government.

Indeed, in August 2021, during a confidential meeting in Bercy, Nestlé admitted to using numerous prohibited filters (UV filters, carbon filters, microfilters with tight mesh). The company then asked the government if it would be possible to continue using microfilters. Questioned on this subject, several administrations had clearly informed the authorities of the risks that this type of deviation from the regulations could entail. Thus, in a report submitted to the government in July 2022, the general inspection of social affairs (IGAS) explained that the installation of these non-compliant filters could constitute “false security” and “expose consumers to a health risk linked to the ingestion of viruses”, taking as an example an epidemic of gastroenteritis in Catalonia in April 2016. More than 4,000 people were affected and 6 hospitalized, after an episode of contamination by a pathogenic virus from water treated by microfiltration. A few months later, in December 2022, in a report that we obtained, the National Health Security Agency (ANSES) also warned the government of a possible viral risk.

Despite these warnings, on February 22, 2023, the government of Elisabeth Borne decided, “in response to the demands of the industrialist”, to authorize the Swiss multinational to use non-compliant microfilters, as evidenced by the report of an interministerial meeting that we arranged.

Today, it is therefore the Occitanie Regional Health Agency which is sounding the alarm, and which is considering “a cessation of the production of natural mineral water on the Vergèze site”. “If this information is true, what Nestlé negotiated with the ministers, who validated it on the sly, was not a plan of transformation, but of manipulation. An illegal plan and potentially dangerous for the population because of the virological risk mentioned. We will check it with the commission of inquiry because we have the mandate and the power,” reacted to the investigation unit of Radio France and Le Monde Alexandre Ouizille, the socialist senator from Oise at the origin of the commission. of inquiry of the Senate devoted to this affair, and whose work has just begun.

The future of Perrier and the 1,000 employees of its Vergèze factory now depends on the Gard prefecture. The latter must in fact rule on the request for renewal of authorization to operate the “Perrier source” to produce natural mineral water, filed in October 2023 by Nestlé. Contacted by Radio France and Le Monde, the prefecture indicates that it could make its decision during the “first half of 2025” after receipt of an “opinion from hydrogeologists approved in matters of public hygiene”, complementary to the report of the ARS.

Contacted, Nestlé indicates “operate the Vergèze site in accordance with the framework set by the authorities and under their control. Before specifying: “We believe that you are referring to a preliminary administrative report, developed following a visit by the ARS and DDPP services to our site. During an adversarial hearing, Nestlé Waters subsequently provided its comments and clarifications. We cannot comment as we are not aware of the final report.”

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