The company Nestle sold filtered water containing faecal bacteria and pesticides under the guise of natural mineral water.
This was reported by Informburo.kz, citing the French publication Mediapart. It has emerged that earlier this year, the newspaper Les Echos wrote that the company Nestle Water France uses ultraviolet light and charcoal filters to treat contaminated water.
Among European Union countries, such methods are only permitted for filtering tap water, not for the production of bottled mineral water.
It is reported that the results of the study showed that the water sources used by the company in France were contaminated with faecal bacteria, E. coli and pesticides.
According to rough estimates by journalists, the damage caused by the company's actions over the last 15 years amounts to around 3 billion euros.
In turn, Ingrid Kragl - a representative of the European consumer rights group Foodwatch France, which advocates for consumer protection, stated that Nestle had been selling this water for many years not only in France.
"Nestlé has obviously sold billions of bottles of water for decades that had nothing to do with 'natural mineral water': in France, Europe, and even worldwide, while consumers were completely unaware", said Ingrid Kragl.
Foodwatch France plans to publish a report on the investigation into the actions of the French authorities regarding this matter.