opening of the contaminated meat trial against Castel Viandes

The CEO of the Castel Viandes slaughterhouse and two of his executives are on the dock, Thursday, May 5. They appear in court in Nantes (Loire-Atlantique) for deception on the goods. Then quality manager of the slaughterhouse, Pierre Hinard, had given the alert in 2008 in a book. He describes seeing stocks of spoiled meat put back on the market. “They were really deliberate acts. (…) We played with the lives of people, the lives of children“, he declares.

An investigation was opened in 2013. The gendarmes had discovered meat contaminated with salmonella, the bacterium E.coli and expired meat, part in the manufacture of minced steaks. The lawyer for the slaughterhouse, Me Benoit Chabert, maintains for his part that he “there has never been any practice of repackaging at Castel Viandes“. Those responsible for the companies incur penalties of up to two years in prison and a fine of 300,000 euros.