The National Consumer Protection Agency determined that three brands of medicinal mineral water were sold illegally in shops in Chisinau. The national legislation allows selling curative water only in drugstores. Moreover, the Agency’s inspectors established that the water was sold with the shelf life expired, IPN reports.

The Agency’s head Alexandru Cuzimuc told a news conference that the sanitary notice issued by the National Public Health Center says the product represents medicinal mineral water that must be consumed within three months. However, the importer wrote that it was mineral water on the label and indicated a period of validity of 12 months, in breach of the law.

“The medicinal mineral water forms part of the category of medicines and should be bought only from drugstores, at the doctor’s recommendation,” said Alexandru Cuzimuc.

The supermarkets were given a week to withdraw the mineral water from sale. The administrators will be fined 4,000 lei.