The inspections found ‘a deterioration of food hygiene controls’, the presence of ‘rodents’ and insufficient measures to prevent pests from contaminating a food production site, authorities said.
The family have been devastated. An 8-year-old boy died in Paris after having a very bad hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). A 12-year-old child has gone into a coma and is no longer responsive to her environment. A newborn baby passed away eight hours after being born. A 7-year-old child suffered a series of cardiac arrests. Others came dangerously close, such as a family whose three children, ages 2, 9, and 10, were admitted to the hospital between the end of January and the beginning of February and are still suffering the consequences.
This series of disasters have one thing in common: they all occurred a few days after the children had Buitoni’s Fraîch’Up pizzas, which were manufactured in the same Nestlé plant. The pizzas were found to be contaminated with Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria after tests.
The Public Health Unit of the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office launched a preliminary assessment on March 22 for endangering others, involuntary harm, and involuntary manslaughter.
Gendarmes from the Central Office for the Fight Against Environmental and Public Health Violations raided Nestlé’s headquarters in Issy-les-Moulineaux (Hauts-de-Seine), the Caudry factory (Nord), and a number of other locations on April 13.
The research by the French public health ministry and the Pasteur Institute established a relationship between the HUS cluster and the Buitoni pizza.
The inspections found ‘a deterioration of food hygiene controls’, the presence of ‘rodents’ and insufficient measures to prevent pests from contaminating a food production site, authorities said
The bacteria Escherichia coli can cause serious and long-term health problems, including acute renal failure. According to French authorities, reports of suspected illnesses began in late February.
As of April 13, they had confirmed 53 cases, including two deaths, and were investigating 26 additional. The reaction time, according to lawyer Pierre Debuisson, who is representing 40 of the victims’ families, was too slow: “The first hospitalizations occurred in January and the plant’s production lines were not closed until March 18. They let the products get sold out and other children were contaminated.”
On March 18, the Caudry plant halted production, the same day a news release announcing the pizza recall was sent out. The decision was made “after being informed of the presence of E. coli bacteria in the dough of a frozen pizza from the Fraîch’Up range,” according to the firm.
The Nestlé Group, for one, has battened down the hatches. Due to the ongoing legal actions, the Swiss behemoth no longer wishes to comment.
“This is a stage in the investigation. We continue to cooperate fully with the authorities to ensure that the investigation proceeds smoothly. We are not in a position to share more information at this time. We want to reaffirm that the safety and quality of our products are our top priorities,” the group stated.
The Buitoni brand is the only one mentioned in this news release, which makes no mention of its parent company, Nestlé. Buitoni, the Italian firm that built the Caudry site in 1982, is no longer in business. It was purchased by a Swiss business in 1988, but only the frozen pizza production remained.
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