Brand quality controllers are likely to be under high pressure in the coming weeks.
After Kinder (chocolate) and Buitoni (pizza), a new national recall campaign concerning six cheeses from a cheese dairy of the Graindorge brand (Lactalis group) and marketed by major retailers was launched on Tuesday.
These cheese products could contain the bacteria responsible for listeriosis, according to the government site Rappel Conso.
This campaign, the extent of which was not immediately known, concerns a brie, two coulommiers and two Normanville - five raw milk cheeses - produced in the Fromagerie de Livarot, which belongs to Graindorge.
The recalled cheeses may contain Listeria monocytogenes (causative agent of listeriosis).
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This food infection is rare - a few hundred cases per year in France -, but once declared, it is particularly deadly: about a quarter of patients die.
The incubation period can be up to eight weeks.
Graindorge is a brand specializing in the purchase and processing of raw milk, owned since 2016 by Lactalis.
The cheeses concerned have been marketed throughout France since mid-March in the supermarkets of the Auchan, Leclerc, Casino, Carrefour, Intermarché, Cora, Système U brands, but also Schiever (very present in the North-East) and grocery stores “WE Anti Gaspi”.
Another coulommiers marketed by Franprix and bearing the same batch number is subject to a recall under the same conditions.
The most fragile must be on the alert
The government site recommends returning the products for reimbursement or destroying them.
People who have consumed the products and have a fever, isolated or accompanied by headaches, and body aches are invited to consult their doctor.
Pregnant women, immunocompromised people and the elderly should be particularly attentive to these symptoms, it is specified.
The recall procedure is due to end on April 19.
The identification number of the recalled batches is 250222LI9 and the health mark or stamp is FR 14.371.001 CE, according to the rappel.conso.gouv.fr website.
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This campaign comes in the wake of a massive recall of frozen pizzas of the Buitoni brand, after several serious cases of contamination of children by the bacterium Escherichia coli and deaths, possibly linked to the consumption of these products.
An investigation is ongoing into this case.
Two weeks before Easter, several dozen cases of salmonellosis have also been detected in Europe and suspicions are turning to Kinder chocolate products made in Belgium and recalled by the manufacturer Ferrero.
