Keurig Dr Pepper announced a withdrawal of their Penafiel unflavored mineral spring water imported from Mexico due to high levels of arsenic. On a press release read by the company, it was emphasized that when a diet has high levels of arsenic, it can lead to numerous chronic illnesses.
The tests for water quality were performed by an independent laboratory on behalf of Keurig Dr Pepper. The levels of arsenic were higher than the bottled water standards by the FDA for mineral water, that is, 10 ppb.
The recall will involve all the 600-ml and 1.5-liter unflavored mineral spring waters. The consumers may return the bottles to local stores to get refund. In the past, high amounts of arsenic have been detected in two brands of bottled water sold at major stores.
In a press release, the CEH organization announced that Starkey water, ownership of Whole Foods, and Penafiel, ownership of Dr Pepper and sold at Walmart and Target, contains high levels of arsenic and this requires a health warning under the consumer protection law in California.
Arsenic is a toxin which can lead to cancer and impede reproduction; it was stated on the press release.
The CEO of the non-profit Californian Center for Environmental Health (CEH), Michael Green, warned that even though bottled water may appear as the safer option to tap water, it may lead to severe health issues in this particular case.
He added that consumers are being exposed to high levels of this dangerous toxin without their knowledge.
He also points out that the exact amount of arsenic could not be revealed because the organization is suing Whole Foods and Keurig Dr Pepper.
A research by Consumer Reports also discovered high levels of arsenic in the brands.
According to Whole Foods, they did their own tests around that period with the same water batch and concluded that the products are in correlation with the FDA standards.
However, the FDA has not contacted with Whole Foods claiming that they do not see a problem with their bottled water even though they admitted of Starkey safety issues in the past.
Back in 2017, the FDA recalled the water by Starkey based on their surveillance samples.
