Behind the bottled water displays in supermarkets has been hiding, for years, a large-scale deception, orchestrated by water manufacturers and carefully concealed by the government. The newspaper the world And the Radio France investigation unit reveal, this Tuesday, January 30, that water sold as “spring” or “natural mineral” in reality undergoes purification techniques prohibited for these categories, but used for tap water, in order to be able to be consumed. With full knowledge of the authorities.
Concerned by this investigation, the world number 1 in water, Nestlé Waters, took the lead and acknowledged, the day before the publication of the articles, having informed the French authorities in 2021 of its use of ultraviolet treatments and active carbon filters on certain mineral waters – Perrier, Vittel, Hépar and Contrex – to maintain “their food security”. Published in the columns of EchoesThis mea culpa watered down and cleverly orchestrated, it’s all about the trees hiding the forest.
Resulting from a European directive, the regulation prohibits any disinfection of mineral waters which must naturally be of high microbiological quality, unlike tap water which is disinfected before becoming drinkable. A regulation whose interpretation excludes ultraviolet treatments and activated carbon filters used by Nestlé Waters, but not only.
Government discretion
This scandal would have started to emerge at the end of 2020, after a report from a former employee of the company Alma (Cristaline, Saint-Yorre, Chateldon, Vichy, etc.) to the General Directorate of Competition, Trade and fraud prevention (DGCCRF). In the process, the French administration, reporting to the Ministry of the Economy, decided to open an investigation and send its national service to search the factories.
A note from investigators, brought to light by the world and Radio France, reveals practices qualified as “fraudulent” including occasional mixtures with “network water”that is to say from the tap, “addition of industrial carbon dioxide to so-called naturally carbonated mineral waters”, “unauthorized treatments to prevent or treat episodic contamination occurring at source”, “use of granular activated carbon filters”of the “unauthorized microfiltration practices”… “We do not use any non-compliant treatment on any of the Alma brands”, assures on January 29 – and in the present – the company requested by our colleagues. Tuesday, after the publication of the articles, the Alma group confirmed to AFP that it was the subject of a “judiciary process” wearing “on old and isolated facts specific to certain production sites”. Crystal clear water “was never targeted”, he insisted. Like Nestlé, Alma rules out any health risk for consumers. “All checks by health authorities showed that our waters were healthy”assured the company to AFP.
Thousands of jobs are at stake across the country. So much so that when it is informed of fraudulent practices by Nestlé, the government opts for crisis management far from the radar, in complete confidentiality. It was the Swiss multinational itself which requested a meeting on August 31, 2021 with the delegate minister responsible for industry at the time, Agnès Pannier-Runacher. Its managers may have been warned of the conclusions of the DGCCRF investigation, which succeeded in recovering the names of the customers of the pinned filters, and now fear being worried.
They recognize their fraudulent techniques and are negotiating, at the same time, an evolution of the regulations in force, in particular with regard to microfiltration, in order to be able to maintain some of these prohibited treatments. According to them, some of their sites are regularly contaminated by bacteria such as Escherichia coli, and present traces of chemical pollutants such as pesticide metabolites. They believe that if the law does not change, certain spring water operations could be closed, notably in the Vosges (Contrex, Vittel, Hépar) and in the Gard (Perrier).
At least a third of the brands concerned
From the fall of 2021, the government is asking the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (Igas) to conduct an administrative investigation. Regional health agencies (ARS) are also mobilized to inspect certain packaging factories on behalf of Igas. They will visit 32 factories, notably those of the Nestlé group. The conclusions of the report, always submitted with the greatest discretion to the government, are final: “The work revealed that nearly 30% of commercial designations [françaises] undergo non-compliant treatment”, report the world And Radio France, who were able to consult this report. Worse still: givens “difficulties for control services to identify deliberately concealed practices”the level of non-compliance would actually be “very likely higher” to the third highlighted. Nestlé in particular, of which all water brands are concerned, had hidden the prohibited treatments behind electrical cabinets.
But the government continues to navigate in silence and at this stage, informs neither the justice system nor the European authorities. According to article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, any officer “who, in the exercise of his functions, acquires knowledge of a crime or misdemeanor is required to give notice without delay to the public prosecutor and to transmit to this magistrate all information, reports and acts relating thereto”. France was also required to inform the European Commission and the Member States, under Directive 2009/54/EC, but failed to fulfill this obligation. On February 22, 2023, at the end of an interministerial meeting placed under the authority of Matignon, the ministries of Economy and Health, the office of the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, act, “in response to requests from the manufacturer” and “after various discussions with representatives of Nestlé Waters”, “the possibility of authorizing, by modification of prefectural decrees, the practice of interior microfiltration at 0.8 microns”.
These microfilters were until now banned by the French Food Safety Agency (Afssa), ancestor of the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (Handles), since they are likely to modify the “microbiome” of the water and therefore undermine the name “spring water” or “mineral water”.
A government source indicated this Tuesday afternoon to Release that the Igas report included “business secret data” and could not be made public. While insisting that there would be “no health risk linked to the quality of bottled water.”
“The implementation of non-compliant treatments raises the question of the name “natural mineral water” or “spring water”, to the extent that these waters are supposed to be naturally pure and to have undergone a limited number of treatments. But from a health point of view, the implementation of these treatments strengthens health safety.added this same source.
Asked by the world and Radio France, Nestlé Waters pleads “the evolution of climatic and environmental conditions, with the multiplication of extreme events, such as droughts or floods, combined with the expansion of human activities around [leurs] Site (s”. This makes, according to them, “very difficult to maintain the stability of the essential characteristics of natural mineral water”. The Swiss multinational claims to have “took of” ultraviolet treatments and activated carbon filters in its factories, but explains having maintained microfiltration devices “compatible with the regulatory framework”.
At this stage, only the ARS Grand Est contacted, in October 2022, the Epinal public prosecutor, Frédéric Nahon, according to the two media outlets at the origin of these revelations. The prosecution opened a preliminary investigation in November of the same year to “deception” to the public health code. According to the magistrate, cited by the world and Radio France, “Nestlé did indeed use illegal filtration systems, and its natural mineral waters lost their status as natural mineral waters. This is deception.”
Updated January 30 at 6:30 p.m. with the reaction of a government source