Nevada Bottled Water Company Ordered to Stop Distributing Adulterated Products

According to a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release dated June 1, 2021, a Nevada bottled water company and its owners were recently permanently enjoined from preparing, processing, and distributing adulterated and misbranded bottled water.

Brent A. Jones and his son, Blain K. Jones, are company officers at AffinityLifestyles.com Inc. and Real Water Inc. The two allegedly violated the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act by distributing adulterated and misbranded bottled water. The companies used different brand names to market their water as a healthy alternative to tap water when in reality the products contained municipal tap water that had been processed with a number of chemicals. The brand names included “Re2al Water Drinking Water” and “Re2al Alkalized Water.”

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) received numerous complaints that children who drank this water and suffered from acute non-viral hepatitis, resulting in acute liver failure. These reports, coupled with complaints of illness, nausea, and vomiting led the FDA to warn “consumers, restaurants, distributors and retailers not to drink, cook with, sell or serve the product,” according to the DOJ press release.

FDA Associate Commissioner for Regulatory Affairs Judy McMeekin, Pharm.D., said of the injunction, “We are committed to preventing harmful products from entering the nation’s food supply, and we will take enforcement action when a company fails to follow the law. The FDA, together with our federal counterparts at the U.S. Department of Justice, aggressively pursued this injunction and we will continue to take swift action to protect consumers.”

According to the press release, FDA inspections allegedly found: “(a) multiple regulatory violations in the companies’ manufacturing processes, including significant deviations from preventative control requirements intended to control the risk of hazards in food; and (b) multiple failures to follow current good manufacturing practice requirements for water bottling facilities.”

Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton of the Justice Department's Civil Division furthered, “Food and water sold to consumers must be safe. The Department of Justice will continue to work closely with the Food and Drug Administration to ensure that bottled water and other products we eat and drink are manufactured in compliance with the law.”