“No one will be able to say that he did not know”. This is the message conveyed by the Foodwatch association, which filed a complaint, with parents, against Lactalis on February 14 at the public health center of the Paris prosecutor’s office. The consumer association is stepping up to the plate after the filing of complaints from a victims association and the UFC Que Choisir. The objective of this action: “to prevent this health scandal from ending up, as too often, in impunity, gray areas that are never cleared up or a weak political reaction”, explains the collective in a press release. The association denounces negligence in thecontaminated milk caseLactalis and draws up a list of twelve offenses. These “range from the placing on the market of a product harmful to health to the failure to carry out a withdrawal or recall procedure for a product, including endangering others, the unintentional harm to the integrity of the person, or the export to a country outside the European Union of a foodstuff prejudicial to health “.
Lactalis and public authorities in the sights of Foodwatch
The association points to different actors in this case that it considers responsible for this milk contamination, at the origin of salmonellosis in 38 infants in France.
The company Lactalis is the first to be scratched for “amateurism”, in the words of Foodwatch for having bought the company Célia in 2006, knowing that more than 140 infants were contaminated by a salmonella lodged in the Craon factory one year earlier. “However in 2017 the CEO of Lactalis, Emmanuel Besnier, recognizes that it is not excluded that of children have been infectedby the same bacteria for twelve years “.
Large retailers are also blamed for having continued to sell thousands of dangerous products despite the recalls.
The laboratories responsible for the self-monitoring tests of Lactalis milks are also in the sights of Foodwatch as well as the public authorities. The latter have “failed in their obligations in terms of prevention of health risks, but also in the particularly weak management of this major food crisis”, estimates the association.
A sign that the judicial aspect of this case has only just begun, theassociation of victims’ families milk contaminated with salmonella (AFVLCS), should file Thursday, February 15, 30 additional complaints against Lactalis and supermarket chains with the same slogan as Foodwatch: more transparency. “We want justice to be done. Too many questions remain unanswered,” asks Quentin Guillemain, president of the association of families of victims of milk contaminated with salmonella (AFVLCS).
The scandal #Lactalis seen by @A foot. Despite official recalls, distributors sold potentially contaminated products, in violation of the law and the health of infants. They must be accountable to us. Sign our petition: https://t.co/eZLK6B8Z7Dpic.twitter.com/c9tObMQpqW
– foodwatch France (@foodwatch_fr) January 12, 2018
Case #Lactalis, we are filing a complaint with relatives today. : 12 offenses and 4 targets. The objective: to prevent this health scandal from ending up, as too often, in impunity, gray areas that are never cleared up or a weak political reaction. https://t.co/FCBb8tkhvNpic.twitter.com/8HYx9ptfcC
– foodwatch France (@foodwatch_fr) February 14, 2018
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