The Nestlé Waters logo on its Vittel bottling site, in the Vosges, October 24, 2023 (AFP / JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN)
Put under pressure by revelations about the management of the quality of its bottled water deposits, the agri-food giant Nestlé told AFP on Friday that it had “intensified surveillance” of its French drilling “under the control of authorities”.
“We have intensified monitoring of drilling under the control of the authorities” and “each bottle that leaves our sites can be drunk by consumers in complete safety,” declared the president of Nestlé France, Muriel Lienau, in an interview with the ‘AFP.
In France, Nestlé owns the Vittel, Contrex and Hépar brands, drawn and bottled in the Vosges, and Perrier in the Gard.
The French health agency Anses recommended “reinforced surveillance” of the Swiss giant’s water catchment sites due to “an insufficient level of confidence” in the “assessment of the quality of resources”, in a note d October revealed Thursday by Le Monde and Franceinfo, of which AFP obtained a copy.
This note mentions in particular “multiple findings of microbiological contamination of fecal origin” at the catchment level. Anses had been requested by the regional health agencies (ARS) Grand Est and Occitanie – where the catchments are located – to determine the measures to be taken in the face of the “deterioration in the quality of the group’s water resources”.
At the start of the year, the group admitted to having used disinfection treatments in France and Switzerland in order to “guarantee the food safety” of its products. However, such treatments are prohibited to claim the qualification of natural mineral water.
He is now challenged to maintain the quality of the water drawn from his catchments, with fewer treatment tools at his disposal. And this while climate change disrupts groundwater recharge and pressure from human activities (urbanization and wastewater management, use of pesticides in agriculture, etc.) remains strong.
For three years, “all the operating methods of our sites have been reviewed” to comply with French regulations, explained Ms. Lienau.
This “transformation plan” for the Vosges (Vittel, Hépar, Contrex) and Gard (Perrier) sites includes a “strengthening of environmental protection measures around our drilling”, the removal of prohibited treatments, or even the “suspension of certain drilling (…) which did not make it possible to maintain the essential characteristics of the mineral water”.
Quality control measures have also been “strengthened”, with “more than 1,500 parameters” analyzed every day.
As for the mentions in the report of contamination of fecal origin, “they may concern some of the drillings which are no longer active”, she said.
Thursday, after the press revelations, the consumer defense association Foodwatch considered it necessary to “recall the bottles and inform all importing countries”.
A preliminary investigation for deception has been opened by the Epinal public prosecutor’s office against Nestlé Waters in the case of the use of prohibited treatments (disinfection by UV lamp, filtration on activated carbon) to purify its mineral waters, following first revelations from Le Monde and Radio France in January.
The water giant is not the only one targeted by an investigation. The Alma group, which produces around thirty brands of bottled water in France including Cristaline, Saint-Yorre and Vichy Célestins, confirmed to AFP that it was the subject of “legal proceedings” relating “to old facts and isolated specific to certain production sites”, ensuring that Cristaline was not concerned.