The blow could be fatal for Perrier. The most famous brand of sparkling water is under threat of losing its natural mineral water label which has made its reputation for more than a century. A confidential report from the Regional Health Agency (ARS) of Occitanie, which The World and the investigation unit of Radio France have obtained, leaves little room for another outcome.
Completed in August, after an inspection carried out at the end of May on the only Perrier packaging site, in Vergèze, in the Gard, the mission considers that Nestlé Waters, owner of the brand, must seriously consider “a cessation of mineral water production on the Vergèze site” due to the regularly degraded health quality of its catchments and, in particular, a virological risk.
L’ARS « invite » thus politely the Swiss food group to “strategically question another possible food use of the exploitation of current mineral water catchments”provided that you provide “additional health safety guarantees”.
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The future of Perrier and its production site in Vergèze (a thousand employees) is now subject to arbitration by the Gard prefecture, which must rule on the request for renewal of the operating authorization of the ” source Perrier” filed in October 2023 by Nestlé. Contacted by The World and Radio France, the prefecture indicates that the decision could be made during the “first half of 2025” after receipt of “the opinion of approved hydrogeologists in matters of public hygiene”complementary to the ARS report.
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