WHILE THE drinks industry generally strove to ensure that none of the manufacturers of contaminated waters was identified, the bottlers of the biggest selling water on the market, Ballygowan, demanded that the FSAI publish the names of contaminated brands.
Britvic Ireland, which owns Ballygowan, argued that failure to publish names would tarnish the entire industry unfairly, and pointed out that companies had been identified in a 2006 survey of levels of benzene in soft drinks.
The FSAI argued that it could not stand over the publication of brand names because the report was based on tests carried out by HSE staff and it did not have a definitive list of products. Since 2001, it had conducted 31 reports and had never published the names of brands, the FSAI said.
A planned meeting with Britvic’s managing director, Billy O’Regan during the summer last year was cancelled, and it was not until Mr O’Regan persuaded the Department of Health to intervene that the meeting actually took place last October. It was attended by the authority’s chief executive, Dr John O’Brien.
Both sides produced contradictory minutes of this meeting. According to the FSAI, it explained that it could not and would not publish brand names “for legal reasons”, and this was accepted by Britvic.
Mr O’Regan, on learning that a freedom of information request had been made regarding the issue, insisted that his minutes of the meeting be added to the FSAI file. In these minutes, he said he stated at the meeting that he “didn’t fully understand” the rationale behind non-publication of names.
He also claimed in his minutes that Dr O’Brien told him there was “no specific issue” with Ballygowan and that the company could make the assumption that its waters were “in compliance”.
Dr O’Brien’s minutes are silent on this assertion.