FSAI Accused Of Keeping "Schtum" Over E.coli Water

Fine Gael's Andrew Doyle has accused Ireland's food safety authority of keeping "schtum" after details emerged the authority knew some of Ireland's bottled water was contaminated with E.coli.

The party's spokesman on food issues said it was completely unacceptable that the public were kept in the dark about studies showing the level of contamination in bottled water by the dangerous bacteria.

According the leaked FSAI report, 1% of bottled water tested in the last quarter of 2007 contained the lethal bacteria E.coli, which almost exclusively originates from faecal contamination. A total of 6.3% of bottled water was also contained with similar bacterial forms while it has also been reported that 7.2%, or one bottle in 16, failed to comply with legal or EU requirements.

Mr Doyle called for the companies involved in the water report to be named shamed.

"These tests were carried out almost a year ago but instead of making their findings public, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) kept 'schtum'." He said.

Mr Doyle added: "There is no doubt that the findings of the study that show one in 11 domestic brands were contaminated and that over 7% of bottled waters were in breach of guidelines were of public interest and should have been released immediately. This undoubtedly poses a hazard to public safety and we should never have been kept in the dark.

"At this stage, all information must be immediately released and the brands that tested negative must be named and shamed."

(DW)