Two families, whose 7-year-old and 1-year-old girls were infected after eating Buitoni pizzas, will file a complaint against Nestlé on Friday, franceinfo has learned.
Two new complaints will be filed on Friday February 10 by two families in the case of the health scandal of contaminated Buitoni pizzas, franceinfo learned from their lawyer Nathalie Goutaland.
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These two complaints will in particular be filed for “endangering the lives of others through lack of imprudence, negligence, or breach of an obligation of prudence or safety provided for by law or regulation”, and “deception aggravated” against the Nestlé group, owner of Buitoni, as well as against the production site of Caudry (North), where the pizzas were made. Guest of franceinfo on Friday, Me Nathalie Goutaland explains that the complaints relate in particular to “the concept of health approval”. Its customers believe that the Caudry production site did not have this approval. “for its meat products business”.
“Health approval is mandatory for any company that produces food of animal origin and markets it in an indirect distribution circuit.”
Master Nathalie Goutalandat franceinfo
“This is the case in the Caudry factory which sells its products through supermarkets or other businesses”, point Nathalie Gotaland. The lawyer explains that a health approval makes it possible to compel a company “to demonstrate its food risk management before any production. An approved workshop is also checked much more often, at least once a year, with particular attention constantly paid to this food risk management”. she points out.
The complaints also point out that the potential dangers of using the ingredients have not been analysed. The two families of these 7-year-old and 1-year-old children also believe that consumers have been deceived about the quality and safety of the products, with damage to consumer health. Contacted, Buitoni did not wish, on this date, to react to these new complaints with franceinfo.
The quality of the products in the viewfinder but also the controls
These two complaints will be filed with the health center of the Paris prosecutor’s office on the initiative of two families from Vienne and Hérault, whose 7-year-old and 1-year-old girls had been infected. One of the two girls had had kidney damage and had been hospitalized, the second had had violent gastroenteritis. Today, they have no more sequelae. Through these complaints, Me Nathalie Goutaland wishes to question the “more global and general context” of the Buitoni case, “that of the organization of controls in France and their effectiveness”. It thus recalls that a decree published “at the beginning of June, creates the single food security police and transfers its responsibility to the Ministry of Agriculture, and not to the Ministry of the Economy on which the agents depend” Fraud Prevention. She also accuses these agents of not having seen, during their checks, “that should have been placed” the Caudry factory “as part of a health approval”.
On March 18, 2022, Nestlé recalled its pizzas and closed the two production lines of the Buitoni pizza factory in Caudry (Nord) after cases of serious poisoning by the Escherichia coli bacteria. The line producing raw dough pizzas from the Fraîch’Up range is suspected of having caused the death of two children and the poisoning of dozens of others.
Nestlé France “refutes all allegations”
“The Spac [la société des produits alimentaires de Caudry (site de production des pizzas Buitoni situé dans le département du Nord)] refutes all the allegations of master Nathalie Goutaland” formulated against it, the Nestlé France group told franceinfo on Friday. “The Caudry site has and has always had all the authorizations necessary for its activity”says the group.
This is Nestlé France’s first speech since the announcement of the filing of two new complaints on Friday by two families in the case of the health scandal of contaminated Buitoni pizzas.
Still according to Nestlé France, “no raw material requiring health approval is used on the Caudry site”, contrary to what the lawyer said on franceinfo. The group finally declares “renew” on “deepest sympathy to the families of those victims of contamination with the bacterium Escherichia coli.”