Bottled water recalled over E. coli concerns

A California bottling firm is voluntarily recalling several brands of bottled water out of "an abundance of caution" after one of its sources was contaminated with E. coli.

Niagara Bottling, based in Ontario, said it was voluntary recalling bottles of water produced at its Pennsylvania manufacturing facilities between June 10 and June 18.

Niagara spokesman Stan Bratskeir would not say how many bottles of water were recalled, but said it was less than 3% of water produced by the company during the period.

Bratskeir said contamination was found at a water provider, Far Away Springs, based in Auburn, Pa. He said no contamination was found in the water obtained from Far Away Springs or in Niagara's own finished products.

Most of that water had not yet made it on to store shelves, Bratskeir added.

"The overwhelming likelihood is that all the bottled water is fine," Bratskeir told USA TODAY. "The water we got from that source was clean. We test it all."

The Food and Drug Administration "encourages companies to issue product recalls when they find potential problems," FDA spokeswoman Lauren Sucher said. She said Niagara's recall was voluntary but was being monitored by the agency.

Niagara issued a statement saying its disinfection process would have kept E. coli out of its bottled water even if tainted water made it into the plant.

"Despite this, 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," the company said in a statement.

E. coli can cause nausea, diarrhea, abdominal cramping and vomiting.

The recalled water was sold under the brand names of Acadia, Acme, Big Y, Best Yet, 7-11, Niagara, Nature's Place, Pricerite, Superchill, Morning Fresh, Shaws, Shoprite, Western Beef Blue and Wegmans.

ACME Markets, which operates supermarkets in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, was among the supermarket chains announcing involvement in the recall. Among others were Shaws grocery stores in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont; and Wegmans in Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The affected products have codes that begin with the letter F or A. The first digit after the letter indicates the number of the production line. The next two numbers indicate the day, then the month in letters, the year and then the time, based on a 24-hour clock.

Example: A610JUN15 2000

(Allentown line 6, manufactured on June 10, 2015, at 8 p.m.)

Products made between June 10 at 3 a.m. (ET) and June 18 at 8 p.m. (ET) should not be used.

For more information, please contact:

Niagara Bottling, LLC Consumer Service

(877) 487-7873

Website: www.niagarawater.com