The Lactalis company reportedly spotted the presence of salmonella in its plant in August through its internal controls. However, the official veterinary checks in September were negative.
Lactalis has known for months. The first salmonella contamination was observed last August. The information was revealed in the Chained Duck January 3.
However, tests had been carried out by the veterinary services in September, but no contamination had been reported. 1,300 batches of infant products, manufactured in the Craon plant in Mayenne, were withdrawn from the market in December, in France and abroad.
Lactalis Nutrition Santé has 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.
The veterinary services report not found
Surprisingly, the checks carried out in September by the Departmental Directorate of Social Cohesion and Population Protection (DDCSPP). These tests were negative in September, even as the company spotted the presence of salmonella just before and after. A fact that questions the experts.
When the national fraud investigation group visited in December, the DDCSPP report was nowhere to be found. The complete closure of the factory was ordered by prefectural decree, tan the part of the factory which produces milk than that which produces cereals.
Nothing new according to Lactalis
Asked by Allodocteur.fr, the communication department of Lactalis specifies that the authorities have been informed of all these facts.
“We are in very controlled activities, and in a relationship of total transparency,” declares Lactalis, specifying that the contaminated batches, which have since been withdrawn, were produced at the start of the year and therefore prior to this period.
This transparency had been called into question in December by a former milk producer for Lactalis, interviewed by Europe 1, who thought that internal analyzes had been carried out regularly and that Lactalis should know for the contamination. But the strains of salmonella not being dangerous, he thought that the management had “let slip”.
A total of 35 infants were infected, 16 were hospitalized. Today, 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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