According to an association of victims, Lactalis would have continued to sell milk contaminated with salmonella intended for food products for adults, despite the recall of batches of infant milk unfit for consumption.
New twist in the Lactalis case, where babies were contaminated with salmonella through the consumption of infant milk. According to the Association of Families Victims of Milk Contaminated with Salmonella (AFVLCS), 8,000 tonnes of milk powder manufactured in the Lactalis factory in Craon (Mayenne) escaped product recall operations. A milk powder intended, still according to the AFVLCS, for industrial preparations for adults, such as ice cream, pastries or desserts.
“Why are state services limited to infant products?”
“Made in the same drying towers, this milk powder cannot be free from any suspicion of contamination. Why did the State services limit themselves to infant products? Why did Lactalis not carried out withdrawals and recalls of these products potentially contaminated with Salmonella? asks Quentin Guillemain, president of the association of victims. The organization claims to have obtained this information via documents transmitted by the prefect of Mayenne.
It is now an investigating judge who will continue the investigation into the contamination of infant formula with salmonella for which the Lactalis group is responsible. After nine months of preliminary investigation, the public health department of the Paris public prosecutor’s office decided to open a judicial investigation against X for “deception on the substantial qualities of the goods”, “involuntary injuries resulting in incapacity for work less than or equal to three months” and “non-performance by a food business operator of procedures for the withdrawal or recall of a product injurious to health”.
Nearly 300 complaints have been filed
The Paris prosecutor’s office ruled that the investigations should “continue in another more suitable legal framework”, after having analyzed thousands of documents seized during searches on four Lactalis sites. A total of 53 infants were infected with salmonellosis in France at the end of 2017 after drinking infant milk from the Craon factory in Mayenne, which has recently resumed its activity. Nearly 300 complaints have been filed against the Lactalis group.
On August 29, the parents of a child who consumed infant milk contaminated with salmonella also filed a complaint for “concealment of evidence”. This follows the theft of three computers and a tablet during a burglary of a Paris annex of the General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF), one of the services in in charge of the investigation of the health scandal affecting the dairy group.
Concealment of evidence
Quentin Guillemain called in February for a boycott, still relevant, of Lactalis products still sold in supermarkets. On Twitter, he evokes “the breach of trust” between parents and the brand. As such and on behalf of the families, he calls on “consumers to avoid buying and consuming products from Lactalis brands currently on sale in France and abroad”.
More than a hundred complaints from angry parents have been filed through him, plus one for “concealment of evidence”. “Our goal is to ensure that the evidence of this ultra-sensitive case stops disappearing. Who stole these documents? For what purposes? The factory where the milk was contaminated has resumed production, while “She should have been sealed. The day the investigations really begin, there will be nothing left,” the young father recently told us.
A salmonella infection can become very serious, even fatal
Infection with bacteria of the genus Salmonellosis is manifested by gastroenteritis, sometimes acute, which generally resolves spontaneously within a few days. However, the consequences can be serious in certain sensitive populations, in particular people suffering from malnutrition, suffering from certain diseases (achlorhydria, hypochlorhydria or neoplastic disease), under treatment against gastric acidity, or even under broad-spectrum antibiotic therapy.
Finally, in infants as well as in people with a weakened immune system (autoimmune disease, immunosuppressive, immunosuppressive medical treatment, etc.), a salmonella infection can become very serious, even fatal. “We are talking about 53 infected infants, but this figure does not correspond to reality”, estimates Quentin Guillemain. “To this must be added all those who have not reacted, all those who have not done an analysis, all those whose parents have not lodged a complaint because it costs money… For me , all infants who have ingested infant milk contaminated with salmonella are victims of Lactalis. We are therefore talking about a hundred children”, he concludes. And how many adults?
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