“It is totally outrageous and unacceptable”denounces the director of Foodwatch, Karine Jacquemart, Wednesday June 15 on franceinfo, after the revelations of the Disclose site concerning the Buitoni factory in Caudry, in the North, implicated in the death of two children infected with the bacterium Escherichia coli in mid-February. According to a report, which franceinfo has been able to consult, Fraud Control had pointed out “failures” from 2012 and 2014, before sending in 2020 a “Warning” to the Nestlé group, owner of the Buitoni brand and the implicated Fraîch’up pizzas.
Karine Jacquemart deplores “the hallucinating contempt” of the food group. “We discover that there were alerts and reports years ago”she gets annoyed, believing that he “it’s time to be accountable” for Nestlé, against whom Foodwatch filed a complaint and to whom the NGO “has been asking for months to explain what happened behind the closed doors of its factories”.
“Unfortunately, it does not surprise us”continues the director of Foodwatch, according to whom “this has already been the case in 2017-2018” in reference to “the Lactalis affair”.
“We learned, bit by bit, that there had already been alerts in the Lactalis infant milk factory on salmonella, for months, and that Nestlé had hidden it.”
Karine Jacquemartat franceinfo
In the Buitoni affair, it also denounces “dual responsibility”that of the company “which sins by lack of transparency” and that of the authorities who “do not do enough checks” or who do not ensure “the follow-up” of their controls. “There is too much laissez-faire in these companies”believes Karine Jacquemart, convinced that it “we must give more resources to state controllers“.
The Foodwatch director also pleads for better enforcement, “more efficient”French and European regulations aimed at protecting consumers. “If the company does not take the necessary measures after being alerted by a visit from public controllers, sanctions are needed”she adds, citing financial penalties of up to “up to 10% of turnover”. Karine Jacquemart also hopes that “Today’s revelations will move justice”deploring the fact that there is no “still no indictments 4 years after the Lactalis scandal”. “It’s not because we are called Nestlé that we are above the law”, she protests, calling for justice “to do its job to put a stop to these scandals and excesses”.