The Leclerc group sold cans of contaminated Lactalis milk, even though they should have been withdrawn. Milk recommended as a replacement was also found to be contaminated. The Lactalis factory in Craon has reportedly been contaminated several times with the same strain of salmonella.
Umpteenth rebound in the case of contaminated infant milk produced by Lactalis. Last Friday, a mother found a box of contaminated milk on the shelves of a Leclerc supermarket. Even though these products are supposed to have been recalled last December.
Another mother bought milk, recommended as a replacement for Lactalis after the recall of the contaminated batches, except that her son fell ill because this milk was also contaminated.
In addition, we learned that the Lactalis plant in Craon was contaminated by the same strain of Salmonella which had been at the origin of the 2005 contamination. Chance or resurgence of the strain following the work carried out in February 2017 This is what the investigation will determine.
More tins of contaminated milk on the shelves
Seven hundred and eighty-two people bought contaminated milk from Leclerc after December 2017, because 984 boxes were not removed from the shelves. The customers would have all been recalled via their loyalty account or through their bank, according to the CEO of the group, Michel-Edouard Leclerc.
This explains in the columns of the Parisian: “The data which reaches us on the incriminated batches are listed by bar codes. This requires meticulous in-store location work. […] (On the occasion of the end-of-year rush) there was an over-saturation of information, a problem of sorting and interpretation ”. The entrepreneur assured that he would assume the consequences of this failure.
Replacement milk is also contaminated
In the North, a woman also bought contaminated milk, except that it was not among the lots that had been recalled. She testified on RTL this week.
She had chosen this milk because it was recommended by Lactalis to replace the contaminated one. However, the strain of Salmonella which contaminates it is indeed the same for the two products.
A repeatedly contaminated factory
The Craon plant had already had a contamination problem in 2005 according to our colleagues, knowing that at the time, it was owned by another company. According to the Institut Pasteur, which carried out the analyzes, all seem to indicate that the Salmonella agona strain responsible for the 2017 episode derives from that of 2005. Two different owners for the same strain. The hypothesis of a resurgence of the strain during the work carried out in February 2017 is debated. But it seems plausible to many experts.
Thirty-one children were infected following the ingestion of Lactalis milk. Dozens of parents plan to lodge a complaint individually in the coming weeks for non-assistance to a person in danger, for babies who have not been sick, and for endangering the lives of others and unintentional injuries, for those who were hospitalized.
Dysfunctions at all levels which therefore call for a review of the control procedures used in the production and distribution of infant formula.
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