Mineral water scandal in France: Macron forced to deny his involvement
In recent years, Nestlé Waters, the bottled water division of Swiss food giant Nestlé, has been embroiled in a scandal in France involving non-compliant treatment practices on some of its most popular mineral waters , including Perrier, Vittel, Hépar and Contrex .
The scandal emerged starting in 2021, but gained even greater media prominence in 2024.
The main accusations
Fraud, or rather non-compliant practice, concerns the use of water treatment systems that are not authorized for natural mineral waters .
In essence, Nestlé Waters would have used filtration systems with activated carbon and ultraviolet rays to treat some of its water, in order to eliminate any bacteria or contaminants.
The problem is that French and European legislation on natural mineral waters is extremely strict and requires that these waters must be pure at source and bottled without undergoing treatments that alter their original composition.
The use of these filters, albeit for food safety reasons, is therefore considered non-compliant, but, above all, you pay dearly, if not very dearly for water which, in the end, is the same as that from the tap, because it has undergone similar treatments.
Not only that: further research revealed that sometimes the filtering systems used by Nesté were not able to guarantee the absolute healthiness of the water. So the company would have gone well beyond the problem of commercial fraud.
Nestlé's motivations
Nestlé admitted having used these methods, justifying them with the need to guarantee the food safety of the waters due to "climate and environmental changes" which would have led to greater instability and the presence of contaminants in the sources. Practically, from what appears, to meet the demand, water was taken from almost everywhere and then purified and bottled. after all, a source has a certain production, if a million bottles are sold, the water must come from somewhere.
The company said it acted in good faith, with the aim of protecting consumers, and informed French authorities in 2021 when it stopped using UV and significantly reduced its use of activated carbon. However, it emerged that non-compliant treatments had been in use long before 2021, perhaps even as far back as the 1990s.
The reactions and consequences
The French authorities have opened several investigations, including a preliminary fraud investigation opened by the Epinal prosecutor's office and an administrative investigation conducted by the National Agency for Health Security (Anses). The Foodwatch association has filed a complaint against Nestlé for nine infringements of the Consumer Code and the Public Health Code
Nestlé had to suspend operations at several wells in France, including two Hépar wells and one Contrex well, due to the presence of contaminants and/or low productivity.
The scandal caused significant image damage to Nestlé Waters, undermining consumer trust in brands historically perceived as synonymous with purity and quality.
This has given rise to a discussion about the need for new legislation to protect consumers from fraud in commerce
The scandal spreads to the French government
The company has been accused of hiding the truth for years, putting consumers' health at risk and deceiving them for profit, but now comes the best part.
An RF1 and Le Monde investigation uncovered lobbying deep within the Paris government.
In 2021, Nestlé launched a lobbying operation at the highest levels of the French state to circumvent natural mineral water regulations, following a DGCCRF investigation into its practices and those of another producer. Despite the use of banned disinfection methods, such as carbon filters and UV filters, and the request for a broader interpretation of the microfiltration regulations, Nestlé was granted an exemption to continue using non-compliant filters.
The French government, despite being aware of Nestlé's deception, did not take the case to court. Instead, a report was commissioned from the General Inspectorate for Social Affairs (IGAS), which highlighted Nestlé's use of unauthorized treatments and flagged a "particularly high media risk" and possible litigation with the European Commission .
Although the IGAS report remained confidential, Nestlé actively sought to know its conclusions, organizing meetings with advisors from Matignon and the Elysée. The Ministry of Health expressed concern about the microbiological quality of the water used by Nestlé and asked Matignon and the Elysée to decide whether to grant Nestlé the right to use 0.2 micron filters, stressing that such authorization would violate regulations European and French.
Despite difficulties in sampling raw water from Nestlé's facilities, tests revealed that Hépar's wells were contaminated with coliform bacteria and enterococci. The French National Agency for Health and Safety (ANSES) concluded that the microfiltration processes used by Nestlé were not comparable to disinfection and did not guarantee the safety of bottled water.
Despite the recommendations of the General Directorate of Health to suspend the authorization to operate the springs by Nestlé, and despite the threats of job cuts by the multinational, an inter-ministerial meeting agreed with Nestlé, allowing it to use a microfiltration of less than 0.8 microns.
So the government would not only have ignored an obvious fraud to favor the multinational, but also would have ignored the possible damage to health.
Macron forced to intervene and deny
“I am not aware of these things. There is no agreement with anyone, there is no collusion with anyone,” French President Macron told reporters during a visit to the Institut Gustave-Roussy, a cancer research center. But the evidence is accumulating and the fact that Macron was forced to intervene to defend himself means that there is something underneath.
With the climate France is experiencing now, this could be the final blow to the President.
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The article Mineral Water Scandal in France: Macron forced to deny his involvement comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/scandalo-acque-minerali-in-francia-macron-costretto-a-negare-un-suo-coinvolgimento/ on Tue, 04 Feb 2025 17:28:17 +0000.