INFO FRANCEINFO. At least two million bottles of Perrier destroyed following bacterial contamination

The destruction of Perrier bottles “as a precaution” concerns at least two million bottles, Franceinfo and “Le Monde” learned on Wednesday.

Barely three weeks after our revelations about a potential health risk linked to the Nestlé group’s natural mineral waters, the multinational announces that it has destroyed at least two million bottles of the Perrier brand following a deterioration in water quality in one of the seven wells at its Gard factory. According to a prefectural decree consulted by franceinfo and The worldwhich has so far not been made public despite legal obligations, two other wells are now being exploited to produce, under unclear conditions, a new range of soft drinks.

Traces of feces and germs

On Wednesday April 24, Nestlé Waters France, a subsidiary of the world leader in the food industry, announced to AFP that it had, “as a precaution”destroy “several batches of bottles”, usually delivered to the store. A destruction which concerns at least two million bottles, as announced to franceinfo and the newspaper The world the Nestlé company, which ensures that “all other bottles on the market are safe to consume”. Concerning the contamination of its mineral water bottles, Nestlé simply mentions a “punctual microbiological deviation” appeared following “very heavy rain linked to a recent Mediterranean type event in the Gard”storm Monica which hit the south-east of France during the weekend of March 10.

For his part, the prefect of Gard announced that he had given notice to the company “suspend without delay” the exploitation of one of the wells at its Vergèze factory in Gard, where Perrier water is bottled. This capture would in fact “presented an episode of contamination from March 10, 2024 and over several days by germs witnessing contamination of fecal origin (coliforms, Escherichia coli) but also by germs of the species Pseudomonas aeruginosa”. It is also indicated “that contamination of the water packaged from this drilling cannot be excluded and may pose a risk to the health of consumers”.

The well whose operation was suspended is located in Vergèze, where water from the Perrier brand, created in 1903, is historically drawn. However, as revealed by Franceinfo and The world recently, the water resources exploited by Nestlé in Vergèze have been subject to regular contamination for years, just like those of the other Nestlé mineral water factory in France, in the Vosges, where the brands are produced Vittel, Hépar and Contrex.

Already alerts from ANSES

Already last October, Anses, the national health security agency, alerted the government in a note that remained confidential but revealed by Franceinfo and The worldabout a “insufficient level of confidence” to ensure sanitary quality “finished products”, that is, the bottles intended for consumers. Concerning the Vergèze site, Anses experts mentioned the presence of “numerous coliform bacteria”of “deterioration of the microbiological quality of water”and reported the presence of pesticides and pesticide metabolites in “all drilling wells”their sum can sometimes exceed regulatory thresholds.

In a letter annexed to the report, the Occitanie regional health agency noted for its part that the Perrier factory was facing a “regular bacteriological contamination on at least five of the seven authorized drilling sites”. Contaminations which, suggested ANSES experts, require treatments which should no longer allow the production of labeled water “natural mineral water”.

Prohibited water treatments

A risk which in reality does not date from yesterday since, as early as 2021, during a confidential meeting in Bercy, the Nestlé company admitted to using treatments prohibited by regulations, with the aim of purifying resources in water contaminated by bacteria and pesticides. The government, after discovering the deception, having decided not to inform either the justice system or the European authorities, without taking into account the regulations, then ordered a report from the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs. This report, which was only made public after the publication of our investigation, did not exclude a health risk in the event of withdrawal of prohibited treatments. Treatments (activated carbon filters and UV filters) however withdrawn by the multinational, in order to be able to continue to sell its products under the name natural mineral water.

Officially, Nestlé has affirmed since the start of the affair that it has always guaranteed the health safety of its products. Reassuringly, the multinational announced in January that it had closed its most problematic catchments, and had initiated a “transformation plan for its Vergèze factory, under the control of the authorities”, some wells having been diverted to produce, no longer natural mineral water, but the Maison Perrier brand. A new range of soft drinks which Nestlé is currently promoting with a lot of advertising panels and sponsored videos on social networks, with the actress of the series Emily In Paris, Lily Collins, as the muse.

A prefectural decree of December 22, 2023, which franceinfo and The world were able to consult, in fact sets the conditions for the production of these new drinks intended for human consumption, for which the regulations are less strict than for natural mineral waters. Without ever mentioning microbiological and physicochemical contamination of water resources, the decree authorizes the Nestlé company to use two of its catchments with the aim of producing a “Sparkling beverage”. But certain formulations of the decree question the tightness of the pipes, “the same lines” can “be used to package either natural mineral water or soft drinks”.

This decree has still not been published in the register of prefectural decrees, despite legal obligations. The prefecture, questioned on this subject, affirms “do not understand”and refers to the Occitanie Regional Health Agency (ARS), which has not, at this stage, answered our questions, as has the Ministry of Health.

On franceinfo today, the director of information at Foodwatch, who filed a complaint against the Nestlé group, regrets that the information on this affair “arrive along the water. From the start, Nestlé has not complied with the European directive. It is very clear in the directive that as soon as there is contamination or pollution in water, it is absolutely prohibited to bottle it and even market it. But that’s not what happened at all.”