A house search was carried out on Monday at the Valvertt packaging factory, a daughter of the Swiss nutrition company Nestlé, in Onalle in the province of Luxembourg. The Luxembourg public prosecutor confirmed this on Wednesday after messages in various local media. The research focuses on a possible violation of the regulations for the labeling of mineral water.
The case was opened on the basis of an official report from the Federal Food Agency FASFV. That was forwarded to the Attorney of the King, but it is not about health risks, according to the Luxembourg public prosecutor’s office. “The problem concerns the label of Nestlé, which brings water to the market that is described as natural mineral water or spring water,” says Anne-Sophie Guilmot, press magistrate at the Luxembourg parquet.
Nestlé is suspected of not being held to the specifications laid down in Belgian and European regulations on labeling, and his water may have unjustly labeled as natural mineral water or spring water. This is only allowed if no cleaning treatment is involved. Such practices would, if proven, come down to “deception” and “potential enrichment at the expense of the consumer,” said the public prosecutor’s office.
The subsidiary of Nestlé Waters Benelux told the French press agency AFP on Tuesday that it fully cooperates with the authorities. “We want to reassure our consumers that all our water can be consumed in complete safety and that the mineral composition corresponds to what is on the labels”. The investigation is still ongoing, according to the public prosecutor’s office.
The French Justice is also currently investigating two complaints from the Foodwatch Association for “deception” against Nestlé and Sources Alma about the possible illegal treatment of mineral water. Published at the beginning of February Radio France in The world Evidence in which the cabinets of the French president and prime minister were accused of having weighted the lobby of Nestlé in a dispute about the microfiltration of water.