Since March 1, many unhealthy food products have been recalled, including the now infamous Buitoni pizzas and Kinder chocolates. For Quentin Guillemain, president of the association “For children’s health”, things must change.
- The contaminated Buitoni pizzas are said to have caused the death of two children.
- Eight people have reportedly been hospitalized due to toxic Kinder chocolates.
After the closure of the Buitoni factory of the Nestlé group by the French authorities, the Belgian authorities announced the closure of the Kinder chocolate factory of the Ferrero group.
“Can’t Trust”
“This is proof that it is impossible for us to trust these major agrifood manufacturers”, estimates Quentin Guillemain, president of the association For the health of the children. “The latter cannot ignore food safety processes, often managing dozens, if not hundreds of factories across Europe which all depend on the same European regulations”, he adds.
According to the activists, the closure of these factories comes too late, after very many contaminations of people who have consumed the products which were manufactured there. “But why did we have to wait for the events of the last few days for these factories to finally close after deplorable hygienic conditions were observed there or that they were not able to have product traceability? what they make?” asks the association. “It will have taken sick people, hospitalizations and sometimes deaths for the national authorities to make these decisions several days after the health alerts”, she recalls.
“Miss to win”
“The regulations, which are based on self-checks by these food factories, must be modified so that food safety no longer depends solely on the goodwill of these large groups who only have profit in mind to the detriment of our health”, consider the activists. They also deplore the fact that Ferrero took several days to communicate the exact list of products affected by salmonella contamination, then extended its recall to other products and remained unreachable, whether by phone or email.
“Worse, the Ferrero group saw fit to relaunch the production of its products after a first alert in December 2021”, underlines the association. “How can an industrialist of this caliber ignore that a factory must be completely sanitized and cleaned room by room after the presence of salmonella is noted? Unless they think that it happens during the holidays, they deemed it best to continue production, the shortfall being too great”says Quentin Guillemain.
The association for children’s health asks to be received by the health authorities and the two manufacturers to make the situation transparent and to be able to inform consumers.
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