Recall of 30,000 Selles-sur-Cher cheeses contaminated with Salmonella: what are the health risks?

Between 30,000 and 35,000 Selles-sur-Cher goat cheeses, suspected of being contaminated with salmonella, have been withdrawn from sale. What are the health risks ?

The Anjouin cheese factory (Indre) has been recalling since Thursday, seven batches of Selles-sur-Cher raw milk goat cheese suspected of being contaminated with salmonella. More precisely, these are Selles-sur-Cher cheeses (150g) of the brand Anjouin Where Mmm! (Auchan), marketed between May 28 and June 7, 2018, mainly in the Center-Val de Loire region and in the Paris region, but also in Brittany, Auvergne and Limousin.

“Internal self-checks revealed last Wednesday (June 6) a suspicion of the presence of salmonella on lots of over-expensive stools and since then we have one or two lots on which this is confirmed”, explained to France Blue employees of the cheese factory. The first lots removed from the shelves had been shipped on May 28 and put on the shelves between the end of May and the beginning of June.

The references of cheeses that should not be consumed

Lot S134. Best before: 07/13/2018 – 07/18/2018
Lot S135. Best before: 07/09/2018 – 07/14/2018
Lot S137. Best before: 07/17/2018
Lot S140. Best before: 07/14/2018 – 07/19/2018 – 07/24/2018
Lot S141. Best before: 07/20/2018
Lot S142. Best before: 07/16/2018 – 07/21/2018 – 07/26/2018
Lot S144. Best before: 07/24/2018
Veterinary identification number: FR 36.004.001 CE.

The cheese dairy has set up “a very tight analysis protocol for future batches” as well as a toll-free number for consumers: 0.800.35.29.19 (from 9 am to 5 pm).

What are the health risks ?

Salmonellosis is an infection with a bacteria called Salmonella or salmonella, which causes food poisoning. Most infected people suffer from stomach cramps, diarrhea and fever. These symptoms appear 12 to 72 hours after ingestion of the contaminated food. Usually, recovery occurs in 4-7 days, without the need for treatment. However, the infection can be serious and even fatal for the elderly or sick as well as for infants.

In addition and according to a study published by the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Disvorery Institute in the journal Science, this type of repeated infection can cause colitis (inflammatory bowel or colon disease) which can be fatal, and this for all types of patients.

17,000 hospitalizations per year

According to Public Health France, food poisoning, or “foodborne infections”, represent approximately 1.5 million cases each year and cause more than 17,000 hospitalizations and more than 200 deaths. The main causes of infections are viral, but Salmonella is the 1st cause of death and the 2nd of hospitalization. For hospitalizations, we see that if viruses remain predominant (57% with especially Noroviruses), the percentage of bacteria increases markedly with 33% (Campylobacter and Salmonella).

If we are interested in mortality, bacteria hold the upper hand with 182 deaths and 2 bacteria represent the bulk of cases. These are on the one hand, “non-typhoid” Salmonella (n = 62) and Listeria (n = 47). The bacterium Listeria monocytogenes, which represents less than 0.1% of poisonings, ranks second in terms of mortality (65 deaths, or 25% of the total number of deaths), just behind salmonella (26% of the total), note the authors.

The Lactalis case

Whereas the Lactalis case, punctuated by the salmonella contamination of 38 babies in 2017 and more than 200 between 2005 and 2017, still arouses indignation, the investigation unit of Radio France revealed on April 14 that nearly 80 people were sick after eating raw milk cheese in 2015 and 2016, notably Morbier and Mont d’Or, both made in Franche-Comté. About ten people are said to have died, mainly elderly people, already very weakened by another disease.

Milk contaminated with #salmonella : Relive the hearing of the CEO of #Lactalis in entirety. >> https://t.co/THr6U7X5Fr #DirectAN pic.twitter.com/1uw6SlVb3k

– LCP (@LCP) June 9, 2018

In 2012, cases of contamination of Saint-Nectaire cheeses were reported. Informed by the National Institute for Health Watch (INVS) of several outbreaks of infections due to Salmonella Dublin, the veterinary services of the Departmental Directorate of Puy-de-Dôme had identified two distinct origins: GAEC FEREYROL (cheese producer farmers) and the GAEC de Farges in Saint-Nectaire. As the government pointed out in its press release at the time, the contaminated cheeses had been withdrawn from sale.

According to Public Health France, two outbreaks of Salmonella Dublin developed in Switzerland in November 1995 and November-December 1996. Both were attributed to the consumption of a Vacherin manufactured in France. About 40 people had been infected during these two years: 22 had been hospitalized and 6 had died.