The Lactalis group and the company Celia Laiterie de Craon are summoned to the Paris court on Thursday for a possible indictment in the investigation into salmonella contamination of infant milk which affected dozens of infants at the end of 2017, a- we learned on Wednesday from the group.
More than four years after the opening of a judicial investigation, in particular for deception and involuntary injuries, a representative of the two companies will therefore have to answer questions from a judge from the public health department of the Paris judicial court, as revealed by the Figaro.
53 infants with salmonellosis
"
All the employees and managers of the Lactalis group are fully aware of the hardships experienced by the families whose children have been ill and hope that the reasons for this intoxication are fully explained", commented the group, ensuring to cooperate "
in
all transparency with the judicial authorities
”.
A total of 53 identified infants had been affected by salmonellosis in France at the end of 2017 after consuming a product for children, mainly of the Milumel or Picot brand, from the Craon factory, located in Mayenne.
Salmonellosis is food poisoning, which ranges from mild gastroenteritis to more serious infections, especially for young children, the elderly or debilitated.
The withdrawal process had been chaotic and many malfunctions that led to contamination had been uncovered.
After several weeks of crisis, the group, renowned for its culture of secrecy, had withdrawn in mid-January 2018 all of its infant milk produced in the offending factory, the production of which had to be suspended for more than six months.
The company headed by Emmanuel Besnier had claimed that the contamination was explained by "
work carried out during the first half of 2017
".
But the site had already been contaminated with salmonella in 2005. The Institut Pasteur then announced that it had come to the conclusion that the bacteria present in Craon had survived between 2005 and 2017.
Read also Contaminated milk case: the legal vice is tightening on Lactalis
Several hundred complaints have been filed and several dozen people have been interviewed by investigators.
In October 2019, Emmanuel Besnier was heard in the context of police custody, from which he came out without prosecution.
According to an expert report rendered in October 2022 and added to the file, of which AFP journalists were aware, "
the company lacked vigilance or even clairvoyance vis-à-vis the repeated negative signals which alerted to a loss of security of manufacturing
”.
"
But the file in no way leads to the conclusion that the company would not have respected its pre-established commitments to comply with the requirements of the regulations (...) or that it would have marketed before December 1 (2017 , editor's note) of the products knowing that they were contaminated with salmonella following a self-checking analysis
”, add the experts, however.
