If you shop more often at Denner and stock up on mineral water of the “Cristella” brand, you may have wondered why your favorite drink can no longer be found on the shelf. Well: “Cristella” no longer exists; one of the three mineral springs in Lostorf has been temporarily closed.
The mineral water market in Switzerland is subject to strict rules, including the regulation on drinking, spring and mineral water. It goes without saying that mineral water has to be of perfect microbiological quality. To do this, it has to be characterized by «special geological origin, type and quantity of the mineral components, original purity, as well as the constant composition and temperature as part of natural fluctuations». And: Natural mineral water from the same source may not be marketed under several brand names. Conversely, this also means that mineral water of a certain brand must also be assigned to a source of origin. A source means “a specific, hydrogeologically characterizable groundwater resource”.
“Foreign” water in the “Cristella spring”
What has happened in Lostorf, where the mineral spring Eptingen AG has developed three springs for the three mineral water brands «Cristallo», «Cristella» and «Saguaro»? One day in March, quality controls in the in-house laboratory noticed microbiological deviations. What bubbled from the “Cristella spring” was probably absolutely perfect drinking water, but not exactly “Cristella” water. And so it could no longer be bottled as «Cristella» and put on sale.
“We noticed a water ingress at the spring,” explains Damaris Buchenhorner, Head of Marketing at Mineralquelle Eptingen AG, to which the Lostorf site has belonged since the 1930s. After heavy rainfall followed a long period of drought, a small amount of “foreign” water had apparently made its way through the rock layer and mixed at the source with the mineral water from Lostorf sold under the brand name “Cristella”. Something like this can be repeated, so the source remains closed at least until further notice. Whether it will ever be used again for mineral water production is still open, says Damaris Buchenhorner. Discussions were held with geologists and the cantonal office for the environment. The source protection zone could be enlarged.
There is enough «Cristallo» instead of «Cristella»
A break in the leg is not the loss of one source for Mineralquelle Eptingen AG – at least not if the consumer plays along and is flexible with regard to brand preference. The production capacity in Lostorf is around 100,000 bottles a day. Long enough, the purest mineral water bubbles from the remaining two springs to utilize them. The “Cristallo source” in particular is very productive, according to Damaris Buchenhorner. The water of the “Cristallo” brand is available in the free beverage trade, and the Denner branches are now being supplied with it instead of “Cristella”. The discounter Lidl sells the water from the third source exclusively as its own brand “Saguaro”. Anyone who now drinks “Cristallo” instead of “Cristella” will certainly have no harm from it, if only on the contrary: This mineral water has already been voted the best in the country by the consumer magazine “K-Tipp” as the test winner. It (like the “Eptinger” from the parent company, also rated “very good”) comes from a deep source, one of the deepest in Europe. Due to its own pressure, it reaches the earth’s surface from a depth of 514 meters without a pump and is caught there. An incident like the now closed source is not to be feared here.
–
