“We have a failing consumer protection system”, alerted Karine Jacquemart, director general of the NGO Foodwatch France, Wednesday April 6 on franceinfo after the recalls, in recent days, of Buitoni pizzas (Nestlé) contaminated with the E.coli bacterium, Kinder chocolates (Ferrero) contaminated with salmonella and Graindorge cheese (Lactalis) potentially contaminated with listeria. Karine Jacquemart called for “to restore the means to the controllers of the public authority” and to “restore transparency” in the self-checks carried out by the companies for the “to force them to take responsibility” and “restore consumer confidence”. According to her, “until there is a more dissuasive system, laissez-faire and laissez-faire anything can continue with impunity because, the reality is that we do not know what is happened in these factories”.
franceinfo: So many products contaminated with bacteria, is that rare?
Karine Jacquemart: It’s rare for everything to happen at the same time, but unfortunately repeated food scandals are not uncommon. On the other hand, there, we still have three giants of the food industry, Nestlé, Ferrero and Lactalis. What this reveals, what Foodwatch has pointed out for years, is that we have a failing consumer protection system. On paper, we have European regulations that are very clear and very strong, but they are not sufficiently respected in practice.
Not sufficiently respected by companies?
There is a double responsibility. Companies, on the one hand, have the obligation to carry out self-checks and to share alerts if these self-checks reveal that there is a health risk. They must also ensure that the hygienic conditions of the factories throughout the production chain make it possible to sell only products that do not present a risk to health. The State, the repression of fraud and the veterinary services, on the other hand, must check that self-checks are carried out by companies.
In your opinion, there is not enough self-checking and control of these self-checks?
The problem is that we don’t know. There is a lack of transparency regarding what is or is not being done by companies. Add to this the fact that for several years there has been a constant reduction in the number of controllers in the field and the means allocated to the State control services. According to internal information from the Ministry of the Economy, the repression of fraud has lost more than 440 jobs over the past 10 years. It is as many people who do not carry out checks on the ground. The self-monitoring system, ie forcing companies to take their share of responsibility, is essential. We do not dispute that. It’s not about putting a public controller behind every factory, every day.
“But relying too heavily on the company, which finds itself judge and party of the control and results in its production chain, wanting to trust them blindly without putting state controls behind it, this is not is not acceptable.”
Karine Jacquemart, General Manager of Foodwatch Franceat franceinfo
This amounts to privatizing controls.
The prefect of the North has banned the production of pizzas in the Buitoni factory in Caudry, is this a decision that comes too late in your opinion?
It is essential to act, that these inspections arrive, because we are not joking, we are talking about health risks. But, yes, what we regret is that we act too late. The real question, and we would like the companies, Nestlé, Ferrero, Lactalis, to answer it, is what controls have they done in these factories, on the production line in a preventive way? Same with authorities. Have they carried out checks in these factories in the last two years? What about the results? We need to restore transparency to be a deterrent and force companies to take their responsibilities, but also to restore consumer confidence. Until this is resolved there will be a repetition of scandals. Let’s give back the means to the controllers of the public authority who have the role of defending the rights of consumers and the health of citizens because as long as there is not a more dissuasive system, laissez-faire and laissez-faire n Anything can go on with impunity because the reality is that we don’t know what happened in these factories.