The Lactalis company reportedly spotted the presence of salmonella in its plant in August through its internal controls. Controls that she had not revealed. Lactalis is the tradition of opaque milk!
It has been months since Lactalis knew that there was contamination of its Craon plant by salmonella. The first salmonella contamination was observed last August. The information was revealed in the Chained Duck on January 3.
Lactalis Nutrition Santé has reportedly detected the presence of salmonella twice, in August and November. The bacteria were present “on cleaning equipment and on the tiles”. Nothing was said because it is not legally obligatory for this type of company to communicate on the controls carried out internally.
Transparency called into question
Questioned by Allodocteur.fr, the communication department of Lactalis specified that the authorities were informed on all these facts: “We are in very controlled activities and in relation of total transparency”.
A transparency that had been called into question in December by a former milk producer for Lactalis. Asked by Europe 1, he thought that internal analyzes had been carried out regularly and that Lactalis should know about the contamination. But the strains of salmonella not being dangerous, he thought the management had “let it go”.
An opacity which is a tradition
The French group Lactalis has become the world leader in dairy products after a frenzy of acquisitions via a holding company domiciled in Belgium, in Ixelles. On the occasion of the crisis of milk producers, Mediapart recalled that the company is also characterized by particularly opaque financial management.
Despite its turnover of 17 billion euros, Lactalis remains a family company, unlisted, owned by the Besnier family through holding companies domiciled in Paris. On the other hand, Lactalis has the doctrine of not filing its annual accounts and prefers to pay the derisory fine.
A total of 35 infants were infected, 16 were hospitalized. All are in good health today. The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation. Complaints were filed for “unintentional injury”, “endangering the life of another” and “deception”.
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