In August, the Occitanie regional health agency invited Nestlé Waters, caught in a scandal over prohibited treatments for its mineral waters, to “question” another “food use” of its Perrier packaging site, according to revelations on Monday from Radio France and Le Monde.
Since January, the French subsidiary of the Swiss giant has been the subject of controversy concerning its use, in the past, of disinfection treatments for its mineral waters, which are not dangerous but prohibited for mineral waters, which must have a high quality natural which allows you to do without it.
These conditions are less and less met on the mineral water production sites of Nestlé Waters, which had to stop operating one of its boreholes at its Perrier packaging site in Vergèze (Gard) in April after the discovery bacteria of fecal origin.
In a report dated August, cited by Radio France and Le Monde, the regional health agency (ARS) of Occitanie judged that these “bacterial contaminations”, although “punctual”, are “unacceptable for mineral water natural.”
She “invited” Nestlé Waters to “strategically examine another possible food use of the exploitation of current mineral water catchments”, report the two media.
For example, Nestlé Waters owns the Maison Perrier brand, which does not benefit from the mineral water designation and can therefore be subject to disinfection treatments.
According to the two media, ARS Occitanie concluded in August that the use of certain unauthorized treatments, which include UV lamps and carbon filters, had ceased on the Vergèze site.
On the other hand, she considered that microfiltration, the regulations for which were relaxed by the government in 2023, is “not regulatory” in that it has a “proven disinfectant effect”.
The report also mentioned a “virological risk”, microfilters not having “a retention effect on viruses”, according to Radio France and Le Monde.
“We operate the Vergèze site in accordance with the framework set by the authorities and under their control,” Nestlé Waters responded to AFP, which did not wish to comment on the report before its final version.
Socialist senator Alexandre Ouizille, rapporteur for the parliamentary commission of inquiry into the practices of bottled water manufacturers, spoke on Monday of a report that was “damning for” Nestlé Waters, “but also for the Borne government, which validated a transformation plan which remains (…) illegal”.
