French government and Nestlé, which is accused of covering up in the Perrier water scandal

For more than 120 years, the French brand Perrier has been producing some of the world's best -known sparkling mineral water, its tear -shaped green bottles and light, bubbling blisters that are synonymous with European refinement and good taste.

However, the brand has recently got involved in a very indelegant scandal that accused food and beverage regulations, the definition of “natural” water and this week, a cover-up that reached the upper levels of the French government.

At the center of the problem is the marketing of Perrier as a “natural mineral water”, a term whose use of France and the European Union is strictly regulated.

French supervisory authorities and independent consumer guards have accused Nestlé Waters, Perrier's French parent company, filter and ultraviolet sterilizers for years to treat the water bottles from fountain in Provence. The methods came in the regulations of French and the EU, they said, and changed the water so far that it could no longer be described as “natural”.

This month, officials in the Gard region in the south of France, where Perrier's water is obtained, have ordered the company to remove its water filters within two months, while the authorities decide whether to demand that Perrier change its labeling.

The dispute expanded this week when the French Senate released the results of an investigation to hide the treatment of Perrier and other brands of water in bottles, which the report had accused of covering “illegal practices” with the help of the French government.