By AFP - Agence France Presse
France allowed Nestlé to use banned filter for bottled water: Media
The French government has allowed food giant Nestlé to sell bottled water despite the company using a banned filtering method, the media reported on Tuesday.
According to the daily Le Monde and Radio France, the offices of the prime minister and the president allowed Nestlé to market the unregulated water, against the recommendation of the French health services.
Nestlé's water subsidiary, which in France owns the Vittel, Contrex, Hepar, and Perrier brands, agreed in September to pay a fine of two million euros (US$2.2 million) to end investigations into illegal wells and mineral water treatment. This followed a complaint lodged by the Foodwatch Association.
The agreement ended preliminary investigations into the use of unauthorized water sources and fraud in the filtering of its mineral waters - an illegal practice in France, where mineral waters must be natural.
But back in 2023, the two media outlets claimed that the prime minister's office had “favored Nestlé's interests to the detriment of consumers” by granting an exception for the use of microfilters, which Nestlé said it was using to improve food safety.
In January 2023, the head of the DGS health authority recommended “the immediate suspension” of Nestlé's authorization to sell water from French wells. An official report said the water was contaminated.
The recommendation was transferred to the office of then Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.
But a month later, the minister's office and the services of President Emmanuel Macron authorized Nestlé to continue micro-filtering, media reports said.
They said the result was the fruit of intense lobbying, even involving a meeting of Macron's chief of staff, Alexis Kohler, with Nestlé representatives.
Asked about the report, Macron said he knew “nothing about these things”.
On the sidelines of a visit to a medical facility near Paris, Macron added: “There is no understanding with anyone, there is no collusion.”
Nestlé said that “like any company”, it holds regular talks with the authorities that oversee its business. All requests made to the authorities are public record, it added.
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