The North prefecture said on Friday that it had authorized the partial resumption of pizza production at the Buitoni factory in Caudry (North), which has been closed since April 2022 after serious cases of contamination by Escherichia coli bacteria.
The prefect of the North authorized the reopening of “the line of pizzas with cooked dough, exclusively”, considering that “control of the production conditions of the pizzas” was achieved in this part of the factory. The raw-crust pizza production line, suspected of killing two children and poisoning dozens more, remains closed.
Open judicial investigation for manslaughter
Contacted by AFP, the Nord prefecture could not specify the reopening date of the factory, at the center of one of the worst health scandals in recent years in France. On March 18, Nestlé had closed the two production lines and on April 1, the prefecture had banned all activity there, as the health authorities had established a link between the consumption of Fraich’Up pizzas and several serious cases of contamination by the Escherichia bacterium. coli.
In mid-May, a judicial investigation was opened, in particular for the involuntary manslaughter of one person and the involuntary injuries of 14 others. The factory had been closed due to “anomalies regarding the hygiene of the premises and food (…) , and in terms of food safety”, the prefecture had recently recalled, without detailing these anomalies. According to her, Nestlé, owner of the Buitoni brand, only wanted to resume the production of pizzas with cooked dough.
This recovery was conditioned on various “maintenance, cleaning-disinfection” operations and “strengthening of the sanitary control plan,” the prefecture specified. In July, the head of Nestlé France, Christophe Cornu, offered his “apologies” to the families of the affected children and announced the creation of a “support fund for victims”. Nestlé France had indicated that it had taken more than 2,000 samples and had not detected any bacteria in the production lines and their surroundings (walls, grids, etc.), but it had detected the bacteria in frozen pizzas produced between October 2021 and February . 16, 2022.
Source: BFM TV
