Niagara Bottling, the company that voluntarily pulled out more than 14 brands of drinking water that may have been contaminated with E. Coli, has defended the quality of its products and said these were safe for drinking.
The company made this claim in its updated statement on its website. Niagara Bottling earlier said it has yet to receive any reports or complaint of illnesses or injuries resulting from the contamination.
"Niagara Bottling performs extensive testing on both incoming spring water as well as finished products. We have confirmed there have been no issues or E. Coli contamination of any kind detected in our finished products or in the spring water that was delivered to our bottling facility," the statement said.
"Once we were informed of the potential presence of E. Coli at the spring source, we immediately shut down our operations, disinfected our bottling lines and initiated a voluntary recall in an abundance of caution and in the interests of consumer safety," it added.
"This recall only relates to spring water produced in our Pennsylvania manufacturing facilities from June 10-18th, 2015. it does not relate to any purified water or any spring water produced outside of Pennsylvania or outside the June 10-18th, 2015 timeframe."
"We have not received any complaints of injury or illness of any kind," Niagara Bottling said in its earlier statement. A local news source also quoted a company spokesperson as saying Niagara has yet to determine how many contaminated bottles remained in stores and how many have been returned.
The recall was made following the company's earlier announcement that one of its spring sources tested positive for the presence of E. Coli, indicating the water may have been contaminated with human or animal waste. "As the spring source did not notify us in a timely manner, we have discontinued the use of this source," the company earlier announced.
The suspected contamination was traced to water from the company's bottling plants in Hamburg and Allentown, Pennsylvania, from June 10 at 3 a.m. to June 18 at 8 p.m.
