Waitrose customers are being urged to return and not drink large bottles of Deeside mineral water over fears they could contain shards of glass.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has issued a consumer alert over the still and sparkling 750ml bottles of Waitrose No 1 Deeside mineral water because of the possibility of glass fragments, making them unsafe to drink.
The potentially contaminated mineral waters, which are bottled specially for Waitrose from a spring near Balmoral Castle in Scotland’s Cairngorms national park, cost about £1.60 each in store.
The supermarket has removed the bottles from its shelves and customers who have already bought them are being asked to call the retailer or return the product in person to get their money back.
“If you have bought any of the above products do not drink it. Instead, return it to the store from where it was bought for a full refund,” the FSA said.
While the FSA and Waitrose did not give an estimate as to how many of the Deeside waters may be affected, they urged customers to take note of batch codes on the bottles.
For still mineral water, they included: NOV2027 28, DEC2027 01, DEC2027 02, DEC2027 10, DEC2027 11, and DEC2027 16.
For sparkling mineral water, the potentially contaminated bottles would be marked: DEC2027 01, DEC2027 03, DEC2027 12, DEC2027 15, and DEC2027 25.
Waitrose also urged customers to call their customer care line for further information. “We apologise that it has been necessary to recall this product and for the inconvenience caused,” the supermarket said in a statement.
Earlier this month, Waitrose was forced to recall a Santa-themed drinks bottle for “safety reasons”, while in October it had to pull a plant-based fake meat product that had undeclared ingredients including wheat gluten and soy.
Glass shards also led to the FSA recalling bottles of spirits under the Disaronno Originale brand in early December.
