Nestle is being sued over the origins of Poland Spring Water:
Nestle's marketing and sales of Poland Spring water has been "a colossal fraud perpetrated against American consumers," 11 people claim in a federal class action. Filing their suit Tuesday in Connecticut, where Nestle is based, the lead plaintiffs are from the Nutmeg State as well as New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. They say they would not have paid a premium for the water had they known it did not actually come from eight purported natural springs in Maine.
Rather than being "100% Natural Spring Water," the "products all contain ordinary groundwater that defendant collects from wells it drilled in saturated plains or valleys where the water table is within a few feet of the earth's surface," lead plaintiff Mark J. Patane says in the complaint. "The vast bulk of that groundwater is collected from Maine's most populous counties in southwestern Maine, only a short distance from the New Hampshire border," the complaint continues.
As required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, all bottled spring water must be collected either at the source of a naturally occurring spring or from a well that draws from a natural spring. "In hydro-geological parlance, all such well water must be 'hydraulically connected' to a genuine spring," the complaint states. But the class says that's not the case for defendant Nestle Waters North America's eight sites in Maine.
People will pay for water in a bottle?!
(Score: 2) by ledow on Saturday August 19 2017, @08:09PM (25 children)
No, they shouldn't lie about the source of their water.
However, if you pay more money because it comes from a spring rather than the water table, I have to wonder what difference you think it actually makes when drinking it. Certainly nothing you could measure.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday August 19 2017, @08:24PM (12 children)
If the tap water is poison like it is in a big city like London. Then it might save your comfort and health. Some people value that ;-)
Won't be pretty if there's a logistical failure though.
(Score: 2) by ledow on Saturday August 19 2017, @09:34PM (11 children)
I live in London.
I drink water. I'm not dead yet.
P.S. Dasani used to be a Coke-owned brand that literally bottled treated London tap water (honestly, you can't make this shit up), and it sold well for ages. Until someone got them into the news for it. Then, suddenly, everyone stopped drinking the thing they'd been drinking for ages and hadn't even cared about.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 19 2017, @10:00PM (7 children)
I think our tap water is from the TJ river near San Diego, smells and tastes bad.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday August 20 2017, @02:04AM (6 children)
That is not true, though as a resident I prefer cheap bottled water which doesn't leave a taste as well as a nasty mouthfeel you get from the tap water here. Annual reports about water contaminants are sent to all residents and we actually score pretty well, although the report does not reveal which kinds of pharmaceutical waste are in the water.
Also, the house i live in was built in the forties and my landlord is a huge mega-Jew who will put off having to fix things as long as possible, if at all. The taste of my tap water reflects that.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday August 20 2017, @02:32AM (4 children)
Who even drinks straight tap water? Use a water filter. It'll remove some lead and a bunch of other bullshit. And it definitely tastes different.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @02:34AM
Those filters can breed germs. I drink straight from the tap. My city publishes water quality data.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday August 20 2017, @02:59AM
Who drinks tap water? The People who ran out of bottled water and are too drunk and thirsty to drive or hoof it down to the store to get more.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @11:52AM (1 child)
People who live in real first-world countries.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Monday August 21 2017, @06:41PM
Or just places with reasonably modern plumbing outside of major cities. Even here in the US, most places I've lived have had tap water pure enough that you can superheat it. Makes brewing tea in the microwave so much more fun -- put it on for five or ten minutes, then toss the sugar in...carefully and from a distance, because half that water is going to boil off the instant that sugar hits and you don't want to be too close ;)
(I only mention that as a good "test" because I've heard numerous people claim that you can only do that with distilled water. Distilled water or rural US tap water apparently.)
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday August 20 2017, @06:58AM
Cheap bottled water is almost always reverse osmosis water. Says so on the label in most cases.
So naturally all the crap in your city supply is filtered out. It's as good as any other bottled water.
Nobody bottels spring water. The sheer volume of botted water is a dead give away.
As for taste and mouth feel, those should be your Clue that the published reports of water contaminants are likely bogus. Pretty sure they don't test for anything that isn't specifically required to be absent. Hense the taste, smell, and mouth feel (which is mostly salts).
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Sunday August 20 2017, @12:50AM (2 children)
"I smoke a pack a day. I'm not dead yet." : P
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by ledow on Sunday August 20 2017, @11:35AM (1 child)
Okay, 8 million people also drink the same water, every day, and deaths from drinking such water are practically zero (if you exclude drowning).
Compare to "absence of treated tap water" - you'd have deaths left, right and centre in such a high center of population.
(Score: 3, Informative) by tibman on Sunday August 20 2017, @06:55PM
It's not always about people dying. A little lead in the water wouldn't kill people. But it sure would cause problems.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 19 2017, @08:26PM (10 children)
Social water. You and your hen pals drink the same brand of water to signal membership in your social clique. And let us admit only women drink bottled water.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 19 2017, @08:52PM (9 children)
Who might drink bottled water? People that don't have a source of water. People in an area that is under temporary water quality advisory. People that need portable and potable water. You're not thinking straight. Maybe you're dehydrated and need a bottle of water.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 19 2017, @09:04PM
You've never heard of beer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 19 2017, @09:14PM (3 children)
People who aren't very smart about how they spend their money.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 19 2017, @09:22PM (2 children)
Indeed I never buy bottled unless there are valuable nutrients dissolved in the water. The water itself is not worth buying.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 19 2017, @11:12PM (1 child)
I can't always carry enough water for longer bicycling trips, and a lot of the time when I do I won't have an opportunity to brush my teeth until I get back. Drinking bottled water instead of pop, or high-sugar drinks like gatorade is sometimes the better solution. If I need electrolytes, I will often get them in the form of salts in food form, rather than liquid. Given that even the 'thirst quenching' drinks nowadays are full of sugar or excessive acids, most of them are not something you want on long distance trips.
Having said that, I buy them in 2 liter or gallon containers, 40oz if they don't have anything bigger. If you are dealing in 8-20oz bottles at 1.49 a pop, they are pointless. (High oz quantities are usually no more than 2x the cost of the 12oz-20 oz bottles, and any time you are thirsty enough to need a drink you probably need way more than 12oz to make sure you stay hydrated before your next stop.)
(Score: 2) by t-3 on Sunday August 20 2017, @03:19AM
A gallon of water at WalMart is 69 cents. A bottle of water costs from the same price to 5x more for less.
(Score: 3, Funny) by rev_irreverence on Saturday August 19 2017, @09:19PM (2 children)
I only drink pure rain water or distilled water to avoid flouridation. Grain alcohol is good too.
(Score: 4, Funny) by JoeMerchant on Saturday August 19 2017, @10:00PM
It preserves Our Purity of Essence
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2, Informative) by nobodyknowsimageek on Sunday August 20 2017, @07:30AM
Do NOT drink distilled water. It can cause injury, and if you drink nothing but distilled water, can actually kill you. This is because pure water will leach out salts from your body and can cause cellular damage.
Reference: https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/2250/death-because-of-distilled-water-consumption [stackexchange.com]
(Score: 2) by sjames on Saturday August 19 2017, @11:51PM
On the few occasions we've had an advisory about tap water, we bought 1 gallon containers of distilled water for $0.80, not "brand name" water for $2.00/liter
(Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Saturday August 19 2017, @09:53PM
In South Florida in the 1960s, it made all the difference in the world. The shallow water table water was infused with fertilizer (read: shit) pesticides (read: poison) and generally smelled and tasted like nothing. Meanwhile, the "drinkable" water came from deep wells and smelled heavily of hydrogen sulfide (read: rotten eggs), but... it was much less harmful to drink than the sweet smelling shit-poison water.
The complaint that the Nestle water came from shallow wells in a populous area seems to have merit to me. If you wanted municipal quality water, you can get that from the tap. (Insert witty Flint, MI reference here.)
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Informative) by kaszz on Saturday August 19 2017, @08:22PM (7 children)
People should know better than trusting Nestlé with anything important.
For those that don't know.. they are a multinational corporation with a history of cheap shit and adulterating. It's like trusting Microsoft to do reliable software. In 1977 aggressively marketed breast milk substitutes, which is nutritionally insufficient. 2008 they shipped melamine spiced milk product. 2009 cookie dough adulterated with E. coli O157:H7. 2015 their noodles Maggi had up to 17 times beyond permissible safe limits of lead in addition to monosodium glutamate.
Oh and.. in the year 2000 at the second World Water Forum, Nestlé and other corporations persuaded the World Water Council to change its statement so as to reduce access to drinking water from a "right" to a "need." Nestlé chairman and former CEO Peter Brabeck-Letmathe stated that "access to water should not be a public right." Nestlé continues to take control of aquifers and bottle their water for profit.
Their corporate history is littered with greed and no respect for others. So expect more shitty actions by them.
Oh and yeah people pay for water in a bottle and for virtual toys.. go figure. And let Sturgeon's law applied to cognitive ability sink in. Then realize what you have around you in the physical reality.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday August 19 2017, @08:24PM (1 child)
Any large food corporation is eventually going to ship an E-coli contaminated product. Citing one doesn't boost your case that much.
Now Chipotle Mexican Grill [wikipedia.org] on the other hand...
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 19 2017, @08:35PM
My cock is going up your ass eventually.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 19 2017, @09:17PM
Noodles with MSG? Say it ain't so!
(Score: 4, Informative) by AthanasiusKircher on Saturday August 19 2017, @09:57PM (2 children)
First, let me say I'm no fan of Nestle. But your claims seem to be somewhat hyperbolic. Nestle's a giant evil corporation, like every other giant corporation. Who knew?!?
No, the last part of that statement is false [wikipedia.org]. Nestle was accused of aggressively marketing infant formula, particularly in 3rd world countries, where it created problems mostly because of (1) unnecessary cost, leading many mothers without money to dilute formula to an unsafe level, thus leading to malnutrition, and (2) unsafe drinking water to mix the formula with, which can cause a whole host of digestive issues (consumption of unsafe drinking water is one of the highest causes of child mortality in such parts of the world). Contrary to some claims, infant formula is NOT "nutritionally insufficient." There are claims about minor benefits to breast milk, though the vast majority of them seem to artifacts of breast-FEEDING (not the milk itself), along with the related mother-infant intimacy, contact, etc. (It would get into too much of a digression here to debate that fully, but suffice it to say that formulas are definitely "nutritionally sufficient," if perhaps not ideal, and are certainly not "poison.")
I'm not absolving Nestle here, please note. What they did was really bad. But it wasn't because there was anything actually wrong with the product, nutritionally or otherwise.
There was of course a widespread scandal about melamine in Chinese milk [wikipedia.org] which affected a large number of global manufacturers. And there were recalls of some Nestle products, though I couldn't find any documentation of any Nestle product that had a melamine concentration greater than 1/10th the level of concern set by the WHO. Again, not defending Nestle, but it's basically like any other large food company that used Chinese milk back then for anything.
Any food processor, packer, etc. has issues with stuff like this periodically. Sometimes it's a small recall, sometimes it's widespread. Again, not defending Nestle, but if you're going to complain about them in PARTICULAR, it might help to point out why they're different from any other food manufacturer.
Yep, lead seems to be an increasing concern in foods, as more and more testing is done. about 20% of baby food samples and 14% of other foods [edf.org] apparently have detectable levels of lead, many of them in excess of government safety standards. And that was testing in the U.S. -- in India, where this recall happened for noodles, I'd bet the numbers are a LOT higher.
Yep, apparently along with a large amount of food and food products in India, which try to hide their MSG [indiatimes.com].
Even though other corporations have been aggressive too, there's no way to get around this one... I agree with you they should be roundly criticized for this and apparently for not speaking out against this quote.
TL;DR -- Like every other multinational corporation.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Saturday August 19 2017, @10:06PM (1 child)
Swiss based, which should be a clue to any customers outside of Switzerland just how much they care about the well being of their customers vs profits.
Watch the world burn while we count our money back in the mountains, seems like the Swiss descended from Tolkien's Dwarves (or, was it the other way 'round?)
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 21 2017, @11:17AM
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Saturday August 19 2017, @11:11PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1Jq3pJejPM [youtube.com]
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by looorg on Saturday August 19 2017, @08:53PM (3 children)
Isn't the name a dead giveaway for that this product is bullshit? Did they think it was imported water from Poland or is there an actual spring in Maine named Poland Spring? I have been to Poland a few times and I wouldn't drink their water either, much less import it to drink it at home.
Don't they know why they are being sued or don't they know if their water is 100% natural spring water? Which thing is it that they are not sure of. One would assume the layers could tell why they are being sued. So is it the other one then? They seem to be highly confident in their legal position, so somewhat less so about the water I guess? Seem like their entire defense seems to be legal mumbo-jumbo about definitions and how we can't help what people believe (... after we deceive them).
(Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Saturday August 19 2017, @09:57PM
http://www.polandtownoffice.org/Pages/index [polandtownoffice.org]
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 19 2017, @10:01PM
"the layers could tell why they are being sued"
I'm pretty certain a chicken can't tell you much. All that clucking is just small talk.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 19 2017, @10:17PM
It's actually very nice tasting water, and there is a Poland in Maine with natural springs. I've assumed (with no data) that part of why the water tastes good is that area in Maine is granite underneath, certainly plenty of granite rocks on the surface and at the sea shore.
We buy in 3 liter bottles at our local store--they have an ongoing sale of 10 of the 3L bottles for USD$10 ($1/bottle). This is in western NY State, where our tap water comes from Lake Erie and often has an odd taste. The local water authority claims it has a good, safe analysis, so we sometimes drink tap water when it tastes OK.
Will be interesting to see what comes from this suit, maybe Nestle has been cheating... Like many things, worth verifying every now and again.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Joe Desertrat on Saturday August 19 2017, @10:41PM (2 children)
Pretty much all bottled water is a colossal fraud if you are buying it (in most cases in the US) because you believe it is more healthy or better than the local tap water. Most of the fraud though I think is committed by people on themselves. Now granted, bottled water companies don't exactly discourage this sort of thinking, but it is the same sort of people that perpetuate all the alternative "medicine" nonsense that promote the idea that bottled water is better than tap water. There are places where local tap (or more likely well) water tastes like crap and/or is heavily laden with minerals where bottled water might be preferable, but most places with utility supplied tap water have water that is as good or better than anything you buy in a bottle at the supermarket. A whole lot cheaper too!
(Score: 2) by sjames on Sunday August 20 2017, @12:46AM
I think having commercials calling your bottled water "Earth's finest water" and "Untouched by man" is going a bit further than just "not discouraging" fallacies about bottled water.
Where I live, the water tastes a bit off, but a simple filter corrects that for a few cents a gallon.
(Score: 4, Informative) by srobert on Sunday August 20 2017, @01:26AM
I'm both an employee and customer of the Las Vegas Valley Water District. My job entails planning water quality treatment facilities. Our tap water meets the applicable regulations from the EPA and state authorities. I bathe in it, wash my clothes in it, water my garden with it. But I'm not required to pretend that I think it tastes good. So I don't. I drink bottled water.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @02:49AM
Amerikinski Spring water?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @03:08AM (3 children)
I never have, never will pay for drinking water.
I'm used to run my own rain water collection and filtering (from dust and dirt from the roof).
Always 100% good, clean, free water.
Only the stupid pay for drinking water.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @03:42AM
Mhm, now try doing it in, say, New York City. Or somewhere where there is acid rain. Or somewhere where it's illegal to collect rain [accuweather.com].
The stupid one is you, Mr. "everyone is in the exact same situation as me".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 20 2017, @05:33AM
>,,,and filtering (from dust and dirt from the roof).
Is your filtering good enough to take care of the bird/squirrel/etc poop on the roof (and accompanying bacteria)? Or maybe the local critters have been trained to go elsewhere??
(Score: 2) by ledow on Sunday August 20 2017, @11:47AM
I live in a city. As do the vast majority of the world's populations.
If you're lucky you have a roof / garden / surface area of your own, you could do something.
If not, you are immediately prevented from doing this from the outset (unless you want to go around licking your windows).
If you have a roof of your own, you have to divert the guttering or rig up some collecting occupying the same surface area.
If you are lucky enough to live in a rainy area, sure you might be able to always have a barrel full of water.
Otherwise, you're going to have a drought of drinking water PRECISELY when you need it most (summer).
Additionally, you HAVE paid for drinking water - you've done your own collection and filtering, storage and movement of that water. It's not free. Not saying it couldn't be cheap but it's certainly not free (in terms of effort if anything).
Let's hope you don't tell people to do this who have lead-lined roofs, though.
There's a reason that tap water exists, and is considered a vital utility in most countries. I can literally sue my council for failing to provide me with clean tap water. Bottled water - that's different, that's somewhat pretension, although in places where you don't have tap water, you need bottled water, so it does have a purpose.
But though you might be fortunate enough to have enough land and know-how to collect and filter this stuff, at your own effort and responsibility, that doesn't immediately translate across the globe. Hell, it wouldn't even translate to London. You wouldn't WANT to be using water scraped off anything open to the open air, and that's if you could afford to own enough surface area of your own to even do so.
Or you can just turn on a tap, drink it, have a bath in it, water your garden (if you have one) with it.
Additionally: Go look at the proper camping water filters, the ones that truly kill the shit in the water, that you can use on a puddle. They are expensive and short-lived and not as effective as you might hope if you're drinking water. Even boiling water is no guarantee whatsoever (autoclaves work at 220+ degrees C for a reason, that's what you need to actually kill stuff). Just because it fell out of the sky doesn't mean it's clean.