Investigations have been entrusted to an investigating judge, in particular for acts of manslaughter with regard to a person, involuntary injuries concerning fourteen people, of placing a dangerous product for Health and endangerment of others.
Le Monde with AFP
The case had caused the death of two children. It gives rise today to a new judicial inquiry. The investigations on the scandal of the buitoni pizza contaminated at the bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli) were entrusted on Thursday May 12 to an investigating judge, we learned from the Paris prosecutor’s office, confirming RMC information .
Judicial information has been opened in particular for manslaughter with regard to a person, involuntary injuries concerning fourteen people, placing a product dangerous for health and endangering others, according to The same source. A total of 55 children and an adult were contaminated, possibly as a result of the consumption of Buitoni frozen pizzas, according to the health authorities.
A preliminary survey was already underway, since March 22, at the public health center of the Paris prosecutor’s office, for “deception on goods, exhibition or sale of corrupt or falsified and harmful food products, focusing on Market of a product detrimental to health, endangering others, involuntary injuries and involuntary homicides “.
In this context, searches took place on April 13 in the Caudry factory, in the North, where the pizzas of the incriminated fresh range were manufactured, and at the headquarters of the Nestlé group, in the Hauts- De-Seine.
Presence of rodents
In February, health authorities were alerted by the resurgence of cases of kidney failure in children, linked to contamination by E. coli. On March 18, Nestlé had announced the withdrawal of pizzas from the fresh range since June 2021, after being informed of the presence of the bacteria in the dough of a product.
On March 30, the health authorities announced that they had established a link between the consumption of these pizzas and several serious cases of contamination before the prefect of the North department prohibited, two days later, the production of pizzas within the Caudry site.
Inspections had pointed out “the presence of rodents” and the “lack of maintenance and cleaning of manufacturing, storage and passage areas”. Shortcomings that could be the cause of the presence of pathogenic bacteria in the products then marketed.
“There are two children who have died of having eaten a pizza (…) I assure you that it is poignant,” the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran said on RMC and BFM-TV on Thursday on RMC and BFM-TV, Saying “devastated” by this “absolutely terrible human drama” which “should never happen” but “could not be avoided”.