At the end of the Joseph-Cugnot dead end, in Meaux (Seine-et-Marne), a grayish hangar, without a soul. In front, two cars and a van with flat wheels, left there, make one think of a garage or a car wreck.
But no, this is indeed the premises of the company Djen Foods, specializing in the smoking of beef, poultry or fish. She's been here for a year. Thursday, the prefect of Seine-et-Marne Thierry Coudert ordered the cessation of its activities. On Friday, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food proceeded with the withdrawal and recall of all foodstuffs, mainly smoked meats and fish, placed on the market with the mention "Djen Foods".
"Take my products and analyze them"
“I am accused of having poisoned products but no test has been carried out. Take my products and analyze them. These are gratuitous accusations, defends the manager, Jérôme Djenadi, by telephone. My activity is not clean, clean, but I have called upon the sanitary services to be able to bring myself up to standards since my installation last year. I never got an answer but I was still working. I warned the authorities of my presence and of what I was doing, but no one ever came by. "
In the hangar, electrical wires and insulation hang from the perforated ceiling. A shower, a table, a few chairs and gas bottles complete the picture ... At the bottom, a freezer of several hundred liters accommodates carcasses or pieces of poultry intended for destruction. And we understand better why, on Tuesday, August 11, the services of the Departmental Directorate for the Protection of Populations (DDPP) of Seine-et-Marne saw red when they carried out an inspection of the premises.
“The activity took place in premises and with equipment unsuitable for the production of food. In this establishment, which was not declared and did not have the sanitary approval necessary for its activity, numerous breaches of the hygiene rules intended to secure the production and the placing on the market of the products were observed ”, falls under the prefecture of Seine-et-Marne.
"Carrying out sensitive operations such as drying and smoking, or putting processed and refrigerated products under vacuum, without mastering hygiene conditions, temperatures and storage times, constitute sources of serious dangers. », Adds the prefecture.
"We were just doing aging tests to determine the expiration date"
A week before the inspection of the DDPP, it was the police from the Meaux police station who went there on the evening of August 4. Called in following a dispute between the owner and the associates of Djen Foods, they allegedly discovered rotten meat.
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“There was no collision that day. The owner, who I'm in conflict with, faked a burglary and called the police. My associates have been taken into custody and are summoned for possession of illegal meat. But this is not the case, there has never been a burglary and for the meat, we were just doing aging tests to determine the expiry date, ”continues Jérôme Djenadi.
Outside the hangar, a lean-to blackened by flames testifies to the place where food was smoking. “These are ancestral techniques in Africa. There was no rotten meat here and it was not in astronomical quantities ”, testifies a relative of the manager who calls himself“ the General ”.
Products sold to African businesses in Paris
“We collect meat and fish from Rungis, transform it here and then sell it to African traders in the Château-Rouge district in Paris (18th century). They come to pick up the product directly here with refrigerated vehicles, continues Jérôme Djenadi. That the health authorities go and see there, in the cellars of Paris, how smoking is carried out. Me, my products are traceable, vacuum packed. I work just in time and today I have no more products in circulation. Those in the freezer will be destroyed. "
VIDEO. Unsanitary cellars serve as cuisine at two restaurants in the 9th arrondissement
The DDPP and the Meaux police station "are continuing to investigate these serious facts, liable to criminal prosecution", adds the prefecture. Investigators will now focus on retracing the journey of Djen Foods products, and in particular identifying the traders who were delivered to Paris.
