Fiée des Lois spring water, bottled in Prahecq (Deux-Sèvres) and sold in France in Intermarché stores, was withdrawn from the market on Wednesday February 14, after pesticide residues were revealed.
“After various analyzes carried out in the Deux-Sèvres department and on the Fiée des Lois site, regulatory non-compliance was revealed with no risk to consumer health on the water manufactured by the site”writes the company’s management in a press release sent Thursday to Agence France-Presse, confirming information from the New Republic.
“As soon as the problem is identified”the bottling plant of the Les Mousquetaires group suspended “the production of water from the sources concerned” And, “as a precautionary principle and as a matter of responsibility”has decided, to comply with the regulations, “to withdraw from sale all bottles of water of the Fiée des Lois and Premiers prix brand placed on the market and manufactured on the Fiée des Lois site”, the text continues. The withdrawal of the bottles was initiated on Wednesday, management specifies.
The Prahecq factory bottles nearly 100 million liters of wine each year, or around 90% of the factory’s turnover, and packages 45 million bottles of water under the Fiée des Lois brand. It employs nearly 150 people.
A ubiquitous pesticide in surface and groundwater
According to the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Regional Health Agency, cited by The New Republic, the contamination is due to a “pesticide of the groundwater from which the water is taken”. Analyzes of the spring water detected the presence of molecules of the “chlorothalonil”exceeding “the threshold of vigilance, quality”. The water remains “drinkable” and he “There are no health problems”underlines the ARS.
Banned from use since 2020, this fungicide is now automatically searched for in health checks. In a report published in April 2023, the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES) confirmed the almost widespread presence of chlorothalonil metabolites in surface and groundwater in mainland France. It had already been decelerated in the water table which supplies the Prahecq bottling plant in September 2023.
In October, the town of La Rochelle, in the neighboring department of Charente-Maritime, closed its drinking water catchments, following the discovery of residues of this pesticide.
