Nestlé France said on Saturday that the time spent cleaning production lines at the Buitoni factory in Caudry (Nord), at the heart of a health scandal, had not changed since "
the internalization of cleaning
" in 2015, reacting to employee statements released by France Inter.
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"
At the end of each production cycle, the lines are completely shut down and cleaned following a strict process lasting 4 hours and 45 minutes, including a cleaning phase, then disinfection and finally a rinse with water, the effectiveness of which is controlled by systematic microbiological sampling in different strategic areas of the site
,” a spokesperson for the group told AFP.
In a survey broadcast Saturday on France Inter, employees of the Caudry pizza factory claim that since 2015, production time has practically doubled while cleaning time has drastically decreased, going "
from 8 hours to 4:45 a.m.
" per day.
An open judicial inquiry
If Nestlé does not dispute this duration, it affirms that the actual time devoted to cleaning has not varied: before 2015, an external service provider was responsible for cleaning, carried out between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m., with a team of five people;
since the internalization, at least ten people have been assigned to cleaning, over a shorter period, it was explained.
This Buitoni factory in Caudry is at the heart of one of the worst health scandals in recent years in France.
On March 18, Nestlé had closed two production lines.
On April 1, the Nord prefecture banned the activity of the Caudry factory, after the health authorities announced that they had established a link between the consumption of Fraich'Up pizzas and several serious cases of contamination by the bacterium Escherichia coli. .
These pizzas are suspected of having caused the death of two children.
Judicial information was opened in particular for manslaughter and involuntary injuries, as well as the marketing of a product dangerous to health and endangering others.
Read alsoPizzas Buitoni: a “warning” in 2020, “failures” of hygiene since 2012
In mid-July, the boss of Nestlé France Christophe Cornu presented his "
apologies
" to the families of children affected by contamination and announced the creation of a "
victim support fund
", in an interview with
Figaro
.
