France said on Thursday there has been a “major dysfunction” in a recall of baby milk, after stores sold potentially contaminated milk despite being told to take it off their shelves.
Lactalis, one of the world’s largest producers of dairy products, in December issued a recall of all products made at its factory in Craon, northwest France, after discovering salmonella bacteria at the site.
But several retailers admitted this week that they had continued to sell the brand’s milk even after the ban.
“This is a major dysfunction in the withdrawal and recall by the operators who carry the responsibility,” Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert told a news conference.
Supermarket chain Carrefour said Wednesday it had sold 434 boxes of Lactalis baby milk that should have been withdrawn after the ban and Systeme-U admitted to 384 boxes. Earlier Leclerc said it had sold 984 Lactalis products since the recall and Auchan 52.
Industrial leaders, intermediaries and retailers must now “shed all possible light on the failings that they discovered and assure us that none of the products concerned are still on the market or in stores,” Travert said.
He said no date to lift the ban could be set “while we have not exactly and precisely identified the source of the contamination, and before it has not been clearly identified and removed,” Travert said.
Last week, a report said that French food safety inspectors failed to detect salmonella contamination at the Lactalis three months before the company carried out the recall.
Officials from the food safety department carried out a routine inspection of the site in September and gave it a clean bill of health, the Canard Enchaine investigative weekly reported.
It was only in December, after around 30 infants fed Lactalis milk had fallen ill, that the health ministry sounded the alarm.
Officials from the national anti-fraud bureau swooped on the factory on December 2 and found the assembly line where milk is transformed into powder to be contaminated.
Saturday, March 15, 2025
