P.M. BRIEFING : Perrier Won’t Have the Same Sparkle--Under FDA Orders

Perrier water will be back on the shelves soon, but it won’t have the same sparkle--at least not on the label.

The Food and Drug Administration has ruled that the mineral water’s claim to be “naturally sparkling” is false and ordered the American distributor to remove the phrase from bottles by July 30.

“The water comes out of the ground and the carbonation is added,” Bob Crowell, compliance officer in the FDA’s Boston district office, said today.

Jan Lazgin, a spokeswoman for the Perrier Group of America Inc., in Greenwich, Conn., said the company believes that its description is accurate but will obey the FDA.

“We decided to make the change because we want to be responsible to the government and consumers,” Lazgin said.

Perrier is expected to be back on the shelves in the United States next week.

Source Perrier S.A. of France began a worldwide recall of its water in February after trace amounts of the carcinogen benzene were discovered in some bottles. The uproar revealed that Source Perrier not only mechanically added gas to its water but also that the gas contained numerous impurities that had to be removed.