Mineral Water (Hansard, 14 March 1990)

§ Mr. Bowis
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the accuracy of the description of Perrier water as a naturally carbonated mineral water.

§ Mr. Maclean
The conditions which have to be met by water labelled as naturally carbonated natural mineral water are laid down in annex I, part III, of Council directive 80/777/EEC. Information which came to light during the recent Perrier contamination incident raises a number of questions on the labelling of this natural mineral water and I have asked my officials to write to the European Commission seeking clarification.

§ Mr. Bowis
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the 241W provision in the European Communities directive which permits bottled water not to have the full chemical analysis printed on the label.

§ Mr. Maclean
Article 7(2) of directive 80/777/EEC requires labels on natural mineral waters either to bear a declaration of the water's analytical composition or to state that the composition is in accordance with the results of the official analysis. A proposal to require the mandatory declaration of information on the analytical composition has already been made and the United Kingdom Government will press for such a proposal as being more informative to consumers.

§ Mr. Bowis
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will raise with the European Communities Commission the question of mineral water purity and labelling.

§ Mr. Maclean
The European Commission has already indicated that it intends to review Council directive 80/777/EEC and has asked member states for comments. Purity and labelling issues will likely be part of the review.

§ Mr. Kirkhope
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether describing the practice of the removal of carbon dioxide from water, its cleaning and then reinjection under pressure as naturally carbonated complies with the labelling rules; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Maclean
Council directive 80/777/EEC defines naturally carbonated natural mineral water aswater whose content of carbon dioxide from the spring after decanting, if any, and bottling is the same as at source, taking into account where appropriate the reintroduction of a quantity of carbon dioxide from the same water table or deposit equivalent to that released in the course of those operations and subject to the usual technical tolerances". I have asked my officials to write to the European Commission to seek clarification on exactly how this provision operates when gas and water are extracted separately at the source and subsequently mixed during bottling.