Investigation after customers report ‘strange odour’ in Pureau bottled water sold at Melbourne Woolworths

A damaged pipe has been identified as the likely cause of a “strange taste and odour” in bottled water sold at a Melbourne Woolworths store.

As of Monday, there had been nine complaints made to manufacturer Pureau by customers who purchased its 600ml bottles of water in Melbourne in recent weeks.

Pureau told 7NEWS.com.au the complaints referred to batch #23926 and that 12 pallets of this product were delivered from the Sydney factory to Woolworths Dandenong on August 29.

The company has investigated and believed the cause of the “odour issue” had been identified as being caused by recent repair work to a drainage pipe located under the bottle line.

“The line itself was broken some metres underground, and there was a smell evident from the drain,” a spokesperson said.

“These repairs were carried out as soon as the issue was identified, however the smell was evident for some time following the rectification work.

“We believe that this smell may have created the odour issues evident in some of the bottles from this day’s production run.

“A change in our procedures for start-up of the bottle line has been instigated while the odour is evident, which includes where necessary a drain flush and air movement via fans.

“We hope that the work has resolved the issue and the smell resolves itself short term.”

Pureau said every batch was independently tested by the accredited laboratory ALS and the test results on this batch confirmed the product remains within the micro specification for food safety.

“Clearly there is an issue with some bottles affected by an odour as our customers, most of which are long-standing Pureau drinkers, are very vocal if they feel that Pureau is in some way not meeting the usual quality standards,” the spokesperson said.

“Based on the micro testing we believe that it is an odour issue only as the test results would show if the water itself was in any way contaminated with organic or inorganics.”

The 600ml bottled water is produced in the same facility as Pureau’s 2L, 5L and 10L products, but there have been no complaints about the other sizes.

“We are in contact with Woolworths today with an update on the issue and its resolution,” the spokesperson said.

7NEWS.com.au contacted Woolworths, which said Pureau was better placed to comment on the water odour issue.

Pureau said it had contacted every customer who reported a problem and are conducting further testing on the products for “peace of mind”.

The affected customers are also being refunded and have received a sincere apology, according to the company.

7NEWS.com.au have contacted the Department of Health and Human Services Food Safety for comment.