“We let them poison and kill people, no one reacts”, denounces the father of one of the two victims

A serious syndrome linked to the bacterium Escherichia coli, three operations, two cardiac arrests… Yohan saw his life turned upside down when his eight-year-old son Natan died in February after eating a Buitoni pizza with his family. Then the 41-year-old says he took a second hit to the head after what he calls “the silence unworthy of justice and the State” : an investigating judge was only appointed three months after the events. “We are angry. I learned the name of the investigating judge in the media. I never saw her face. I never heard the sound of her voice”he breathes.

“What I would like to say to the judge is that we feel left out. We want them to take us into consideration, to receive us, to listen to us, to finally move this case forward, that all these thugs industrialists are accountable.”

Yohan, father of a deceased child

at franceinfo

Despite the mea culpa of the boss of Nestlé France, owner of Buitoni, in July, no indictment has yet taken place. Yohan does not accept it: “We have to have them in front of us, they have to see our faces, they have to see the state in which many families are. We let them poison and kill people. is not considered a priority situation by the state. This is worrying.”

In the absence of progress in criminal matters, Yohann hopes that things will move with new steps before the civil justice. The damages claimed for Yohan’s family and 47 other families of child victims? 250 million euros. “Very little”say these parents, in view of the 16 billion net profits recorded by Nestlé in 2021. For their lawyer, Pierre Debuisson, “the summons obeys first of all a reparation which must be at the height of this unprecedented human drama”. “The objective is also to provoke a reaction, an awareness on the part of the Nestlé group which, obviously, has understood absolutely nothing after having killed two children and wiped out dozens of families on the national territory, children who have lifelong damage to the brain, heart, lungs, kidneys, liver…he continues. Everything must be done so that no more person, no more child is ever infected or dies because of the actions of a large industrial group.

>> Buitoni pizzas contaminated with E.coli: employees reveal malfunctions in their factory

Nestlé France, which franceinfo requested, did not comment. Responding only to a Swiss financial press agency, the management denies having committed gross negligence and explains that it took the decision as quickly as possible to withdraw all the suspected products from the shelves. Last week, the agri-food giant announced that it was aiming for a restart in November of its Caudry factory, from which the contaminated pizzas came. Subject to the green light of the authorities.