Latest news with #Foodwatch
Local France
14-02-2025
- Local France
French mineral water companies face new investigations
The magistrate had gone against the recommendation of prosecutors in launching the new investigation into the companies, the source said. The inquiry follows formal complaints made by the Foodwatch watchdog against Nestlé Waters – whose brands include Perrier, Contrex and Vittel – and Sources Alma, France's biggest mineral water producer. Foodwatch has led mounting pressure on the firms in recent years over their production methods. In 2024, Nestlé Waters admitted using banned filters and ultra-violet treatment on mineral waters, which must be processed naturally by law. Foodwatch accuses the companies of misleading consumers over the water in the latest complaint taken up by the magistrate. Another consumer group, CLCV, has also registered complaints which are being studied by magistrates. Foodwatch director general Karine Jacquemart said she hoped the investigations would 'smash the climate of impunity' surrounding the companies and 'shed all light on responsibility of Nestlé Waters and Sources Alma as well as the role of public authorities and particularly the government.' French media have already reported that the prime minister's office and president's office had in 2023 recommended letting Nestlé carry on with the microfiltering of water despite warnings from the government health service. The director general of health, Jerome Salomon, had called for the suspension of Nestlé's operations permit at its sites in the Vosges region of eastern France and production of Perrier at Vergeze. President Emmanuel Macron has denied giving in to lobbying by the Swiss food giant. Nestlé Waters paid €2million in September 2024 to avoid legal action over the use of illegal water sources and filtering, but says the filters it uses now are allowed by the government and that its water is 'pure'. Sources Alma had also previously been under investigation by prosecutors. The government's role in the water scandals has been under investigation by the French senate since November. The senate commission has already criticised the government. Alexandre Ouizille, the head of the commission, welcomed the criminal investigations. 'Each hearing we hold confirms to us the failure of ministries and administrative authorities,' he said.
Euronews
05-02-2025
- Health
- Euronews
‘No place in our food': Consumer groups launch petition to ban aspartame in Europe
A petition to ban the artificial sweetener aspartame was launched on Tuesday by the international non-profit Foodwatch, the French Cancer League, and the mobile app company Yuka. The petition is addressed to the European Commission and EU member states. "There's no time to lose. The inaction of governments and Europe over the last year and a half is intolerable,' Natacha Cingotti, a senior campaigns strategist at Foodwatch International, said in a statement. 'An additive with so many risks has no place in our food or drink,' she added, urging European decision-makers to 'protect us". The coalition said that aspartame is present in more than 2,500 products in Europe, particularly sugar-free food and drinks such as Coca-Cola Zero, Pepsi Max, and Sprite Zero. Foodwatch partnered with Yuka, a mobile application that scans food and cosmetic product barcodes and rates them based on their health impact. "95 per cent of Yuka users say they have stopped buying products containing controversial additives thanks to the app," said Julie Chapon, Yuka's managing director. 'We now want to empower consumers so that they can act as a lever for banning this risky additive'. The app says it has 45 million users in Europe. On average 40 per cent of Europeans reported consuming aspartame with Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands having higher consumption, according to a survey based on seven countries commissioned by Foodwatch. In all the countries, the majority of respondents agreed that aspartame should be banned from food as a precautionary measure until its safety can be guaranteed. Aspartame was classified as "possibly carcinogenic to humans" by the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in July 2023. This means that there's limited evidence linking it to cancer in animals and humans, especially liver cancer. The IARC recommends limiting daily intake of the artificial sweetener to 40 mg/kg body weight. This would represent around a dozen cans of a sugar-free beverage for an adult weighing 70 kg.
