LEBANON (Enmaeya News) - October 20, 2025

The Health Ministry has lifted the suspension on the Tannourine bottled water brand, allowing the company to resume production and distribution nationwide, Health Minister Rakan Nasreddine announced Saturday.

Earlier this week, the government issued a circular ordering Tannourine to pause operations after detecting the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa in several market samples.

According to Nasreddine, six samples were collected from the market and submitted to Rafik Hariri University Hospital, three of which tested positive.

The Ministry followed up with 11 additional samples from Tannourine’s production site, one of which also confirmed the presence of the same bacterium.

Tannourine management immediately pushed back, claiming that the sample collection was flawed.

The incident affected regional markets: Qatar’s health authorities seized Tannourine shipments from Lebanese markets as a precautionary measure.

Nasreddine added that Lebanon is advancing plans to establish a reference laboratory for epidemiology and pharmaceuticals. Since 2015, eight labs have been WHO-accredited under ministry oversight.

The decision restores Tannourine’s access to the Lebanese market but raises renewed questions about oversight of water safety, transparency of testing procedures, and the process by which public health risks are managed.