The Żywiec Zdrój company’s website states:

Żywiec Zdrój products have been and remain safe for consumers throughout Poland and beyond its borders.

All completed tests conducted by the sanitary services and the statement issued by the Chief Sanitary Inspector on 29 September 2016 confirm that Żywiec Zdrój products are safe. Nevertheless, in view of the special circumstances, we decided to carry out detailed internal analyses aimed at reconstructing the route taken by our product from the moment of production until it was purchased by the consumer.

[…] In the course of the internal team’s investigation, we examined in great detail the supply chain and the route taken by products from two batches: S:08.08/08:49/3/1 and S:20.04/11:04/3/1. As a result of these analyses, we can state with complete certainty that the first place where a bottle from the April batch, number S:20.04/11:04/3/1, could have come into contact with bottles from the August batch, number S:08.08/08:49/3/1 was most likely the Techbol general wholesaler, where a consumer from Bolesławiec purchased the product [podkreślenie – „ii”]. There could have been no contact between bottles from the two batches at the production plant in Mirosławiec, the distribution centre in Tychy or the SIM wholesaler in Jelenia Góra. These findings result from an analysis of precise production data, logistics department data and sales documents.

Taking into account the results of our investigation and the test results from all inspection institutions, we can confirm with complete certainty that Żywiec Zdrój products have been and remain safe for consumers throughout Poland and beyond its borders.

Work on the final identification of the substance found in Bolesławiec in one bottle bearing a Żywioł Żywiec Zdrój label is still ongoing. We remain fully available to the inspection authorities and are cooperating intensively with the Sanitary Inspection, the Police and the Prosecutor’s Office to enable the matter to be reliably clarified as fully and quickly as possible.

The proceedings in this case are being conducted by the District Prosecutor’s Office in Jelenia Góra. “We do not have the test results yet,” Violetta Niziołek, a spokesperson for the Prosecutor’s Office, told us today. “We are also very keen to resolve this quickly. As soon as it became clear that the provincial police laboratory was unable to issue a full expert opinion, we immediately took steps to appoint another institution. Now all we can do is wait.”

Let us recall: the investigators’ findings to date indicate that Maciej Z. consumed a small amount of the colourless liquid in a bottle bearing a “Żywioł Żywiec Zdrój” label in the evening hours of 21 September this year. As a result, he was taken to hospital, where he received medical assistance.

Eleven bottles of highly carbonated “Żywioł Żywiec Zdrój” mineral water, with a capacity of 0.5 litre and batch marking S:08/08/08:49/3/1, as well as one bottle from batch S:20/04/11:04/3/1, were secured in the flat where the injured man had been staying. According to Maciej Z.’s father, Eugeniusz, he purchased the entire multipack that same day at one of the shops in Bolesławiec.

We will return to this subject.