Flak over 'organic' water tag

Advertising watchdogs are criticising a bottled water company that prides itself on being environmentally friendly and supports the Sir Peter Blake Trust for calling its spring water "organic".

The Good Water Company, whose bottles are made from vegetables, describes its product as "certified Bio-Gro organic".

Australian and US standards prohibit labelling water as organic but there is no similar rule here.

The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint from an American woman because the Bio-Gro certification related to the processing of the water, not the water itself. The authority decided that was ambiguous and could mislead consumers.

Good Water Project chief executive Grant Hall said he was surprised by the complaint because the water was definitely organic. "Most people say to us: 'Isn't all spring water organic?' And it is."

Hall said more than three-quarters of plastic bottles from New Zealand ended up in landfill sites overseas and the Good Water Project hoped to change that.