Factories of the French dairy group Lactalis do not respect the environmental code in France, with pollution of various kinds, according to an investigation published Monday by the investigative media Disclose.
The website, which worked within the framework of a partnership with Mediapart, Brut, France Culture, The Guardian, Special Envoy (France2) and the investigation site Le Poulpe, was particularly interested in industrial installations in France from dairy giant, which has 250 across the world.
According to Disclose, “between 2010 and today […] 38 Lactalis factories were or still are in violation of the environmental code” in France, “ie more than half of the 60 establishments listed and analyzed within the framework of this investigation ".
These factories are classified installations for the protection of the environment, also called IPCE.
They cite as an example a cheese factory of the Lactalis group in Isère, sentenced in 2019 to a fine of 100,000 euros, including 50,000 suspended for its effluent discharges into a river, the dairy company of Retiers, in Ille-et-Vilaine. , a subsidiary of Lactalis, sentenced to 250,000 euros for polluting the La Seiche river, or even rejections from the Riom cheese company.
Disclose was based on documents from the Regional Directorates for the Environment (DREAL) and the Departmental Directorates for Social Cohesion and Population Protection (DDCSPP).
Failures in control?
"It is true that some of our sites may present occasional non-conformities, but each time we offer a solution quickly to resolve these incidents", declared a spokesperson for the Lactalis group, highlighting "60 million euros invested since 2010 ”for the modernization of environmental tools.
Disclose also cites cases where the analyzes of pollutant discharges carried out by Lactalis do not correspond to those carried out by inspectors.
“At one point or another, there may be non-conformities, but it doesn't stay that way.
We have inspections, we have procedures ”, reacts the Minister of Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili, according to the script of an interview with Disclose transmitted by the ministry.
Companies carry out self-checks at factory wastewater treatment plants, but "there are also unannounced checks", adds Pascal Lagrabe, deputy director of the Police Department at the French Biodiversity Office (OFB ).
“Most of the industrial self-monitoring which is transmitted to the DREAL is never verified,” laments an environmental inspector, quoted by Disclose, on condition of anonymity.
A complaint to come
France Nature Environnement (FNE), which brings together 3,500 associations, intends to lodge a complaint about the Riom site, a spokesperson said, qualifying the documents unveiled by Disclose as "solid".
Local associations report pollution linked to Lactalis sites in Pays-de-la-Loire or even in Brittany, she added.
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"We ask that public aid to manufacturers be matched with conditionality to health and environmental obligations," responded Quentin Guillemain, president of the association for children's health, very active in the past on the issue of infant milk contaminated with salmonella.
“Companies that pollute and poison our children must repay the public subsidies granted to them.
"