Two restaurants in Belgium have been accused of selling tap water inside mineral water bottles to its customers. The two bistros are being sued by the Belgian mineral water brand 'Val' who made the discovery with investigators after analysing the bottled water sold at the two food places in Brussels, according to a Guardian report.
The restaurants have been blamed for filling tap water inside Val bottles, an award-winning company that claims its selling point is in the purification process in the 'Landenian sand layer of the region's subsoil', the report said.
The two unnamed restaurants were sued by the mineral water producer, Haacht brewery. The officials at the mineral water company became doubtful about the restaurants not ordering enough bottles despite an agreement they signed in 2008. The suspicion grew larger when the restaurants started ordering very few mineral water bottles after 2015.
Albeit finding traces of tap water inside the bottles, they were still unsure about the fraud. To further enhance their evidence, the officials asked a bailiff to seize nine more bottles before it was served to the customers.
The case was finally lodged against the two restaurants at the Commerical Court of Brussels for fraud and alteration of products.The brewing company, Haacht wanted to end the contracts with the two restaurants and even sought compensation for the fraud.
As per reports in a Belgian daily newspaper, L'Echo, the waiter of the restaurant told the bailiff that they the generally offered the customers an option of mineral water and tap water. However, soon after the legal complaint which said that the bottles were filled with tap water, the waiter withdrew his previous statement.
The is not the first time that such an incident has come to light. As reports on Guardian, the British supermarket retailers, Tesco and Asda were found selling tap water, however, they had undergone filtration process and had even removed chlorine from the water.
Coca-Cola also faced a similar issue in 2004 when they attempted to tap into the bottled water market in the UK with their brand called Dasani. The brand was accused of using tap water despite its tag-line which said: "as pure as bottled water gets". However, Coca-Cola said that it had undergone filtration processes before selling the water bottles.
