Scottish flavoured bottled water brand macb is withdrawing bottles of its Strawberry & Kiwi water amid reports of an ”unpleasant smell and taste” in the liquid.

Foods Standards Scotland (FSS) yesterday tweeted a warning about the brand, which is owned by Cott Beverages, advising consumers to avoid its products as a precaution. 

The watchdog was aware of an investigation following reports by consumers of “feeling unwell” after drinking the beverage, and was liasing with the business and relevant enforcement authorities, it said.

”Macb has voluntarily instigated a withdrawal of some of their products from sale. We will continue to work with the business regarding this investigation and further information will be issued as soon as it becomes available.”

It comes as tweets surfaced claiming customers had found “floating” matter in some bottles accompanied by a “chemical” odour.

“We are aware of a quality issue relating to our macb Strawberry & Kiwi still flavoured water in 1.5L and 330ml bottles, with a best before end date of August 2018,” a spokeswoman for the brand said. 

However, she stressed while the drink “may have a strong odour and be unpleasant to taste”, it was “not harmful” and no other bottle sizes or flavours had been affected. 

She encouraged customers in posession of affected bottles to contact the brand’s customer care team directly. 

“We take our responsibility as a quality soft drink manufacturer very seriously and we are removing affected products from sale. We apologise to anyone who has received a bad experience with any of our drinks and once again we would like to reassure customers that this is not a food safety issue and the product is harmless.”