{"id":28188,"date":"2025-05-21T04:00:05","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T04:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=28188"},"modified":"2025-05-21T04:23:29","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T04:23:29","slug":"french-government-and-nestle-accused-of-cover-up-in-perrier-water-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=28188","title":{"rendered":"French Government and Nestl\u00e9 Accused of Cover-Up in Perrier Water Scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An inquiry accused Nestl\u00e9 and French officials of hiding the company\u2019s practice of filtering Perrier water it labels \u201cnatural.\u201d The head of Nestl\u00e9 has suggested that human activity is making pure water scarcer.<\/p>\n

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For more than 120 years, the French brand Perrier has produced some of the world\u2019s most recognizable sparkling mineral water, its teardrop-shaped green bottles and light, fizzy bubbles synonymous with European refinement and good taste.<\/p>\n

Recently, however, the brand has found itself embroiled in a decidedly inelegant scandal involving food and drink regulations, the definition of \u201cnatural\u201d water and, this week, accusations of a cover-up that reached the upper levels of the French government.<\/p>\n

At the heart of the issue is the marketing of Perrier as \u201cnatural mineral water,\u201d a term whose use is strictly regulated by France and the European Union.<\/p>\n

French regulators and independent consumer watchdogs have accused Nestl\u00e9 Waters, Perrier\u2019s French parent company, of using filters and ultraviolet sterilizers for years to treat the water it bottles from wells in Provence. The methods ran afoul of French and E.U. regulations, they said, and altered the water to the point that it could no longer be labeled \u201cnatural.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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This month, officials in the Gard region of southern France, where Perrier\u2019s water is sourced, ordered the company to remove its water filters within two months while authorities decide whether to demand that Perrier change its labeling. <\/p>\n

The dispute widened this week when the French Senate released the findings of an investigation that found Nestl\u00e9 had concealed its treatment of Perrier and other brands of bottled water with the help of the French government, which the report accused of covering up \u201cillegal practices.\u201d<\/p>\n

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An inquiry accused Nestl\u00e9 and French officials of hiding the company\u2019s practice of filtering Perrier water it labels \u201cnatural.\u201d The head of Nestl\u00e9 has suggested that human activity is making pure water scarcer.For more than 120 years, the French brand Perrier has produced some of the world\u2019s most recognizable sparkling mineral water, its teardrop-shaped green bottles and light, fizzy bubbles synonymous with European refinement and good taste.Recently, however, the brand has found itself embroiled in a decidedly inelegant scandal involving food and drink regulations, the definition of \u201cnatural\u201d water and, this week, accusations of a cover-up that reached the upper levels of the French government.At the heart of the issue is the marketing of Perrier as \u201cnatural mineral water,\u201d a term whose use is strictly regulated by France and the European Union.French regulators and independent consumer watchdogs have accused Nestl\u00e9 Waters, Perrier\u2019s French parent company, of using filters and ultraviolet sterilizers for years to treat the water it bottles from wells in Provence. The methods ran afoul of French and E.U. regulations, they said, and altered the water to the point that it could no longer be labeled \u201cnatural.\u201dThis month, officials in the Gard region of southern France, where Perrier\u2019s water is sourced, ordered the company to remove its water filters within two months while authorities decide whether to demand that Perrier change its labeling. The dispute widened this week when the French Senate released the findings of an investigation that found Nestl\u00e9 had concealed its treatment of Perrier and other brands of bottled water with the help of the French government, which the report accused of covering up \u201cillegal practices.\u201dWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28190,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28188"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28191,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28188\/revisions\/28191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}