An investigation has been opened in particular for “involuntary homicides” since March 22, learned franceinfo from the Paris prosecutor’s office, Friday April 1, after the detection of contamination by the bacterium Escherichia coli in Fraich’Up pizzas from the Buitoni brand.
The investigation carried out by the public health center of the Paris public prosecutor’s office is open, on relinquishment of the Nancy and Saint-Malo public prosecutor’s offices, for “deception on goods, exhibition or sale of corrupt or falsified and harmful food products for health, marketing of a product harmful to health, endangering others, involuntary injuries and involuntary homicides”, specifies the Paris prosecutor’s office.
The investigations were entrusted to the Central Office for the Fight against Damage to the Environment and Public Health (OCLAESP), the General Directorate of the National Gendarmerie, the Investigations Department of the General Directorate for Competition, Consumption and Fraud Prevention (DGCCRF) and the National Veterinary and Phytosanitary Investigation Brigade (BNEVP) of the Ministry of Agriculture.
Two complaints have also been filed with the Bordeaux prosecutor’s office, by parents whose children have been hospitalized. “Investigations are underway to determine if it is indeed the E. coli strain”explains the parquet floor of Bordeaux.
The Nestlé group, manufacturer of the Buitoni brand pizza, had assured, Thursday March 31 with franceinfo, not wanting to take “no risk to consumer health”while the first tests, carried out in the Nestlé factory in Caudry (Nord), which produces the pizzas, all came back negative.
There were a total of 75 cases of poisoning recorded, the vast majority of children, two of whom died.