§ Mr. Barry FieldTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what steps he is taking to ensure mineral water is correctly labelled.
§ Mr. MacleanEuropean Community rules on the labelling of natural mineral waters are contained in the Natural Mineral Waters Regulations 1985. Recent information that we have received regarding Perrier water has raised a number of questions about the labelling of this particular natural mineral water and whether it complies with the EC rules. I believe that the labelling does not comply with EC requirements and so we have raised the question with the European Commission and await its reply. The Government are firmly committed to the principle that labelling of any product should not be misleading to the consumer.