These production lines at the Buitoni factory in Caudry (Nord) have become synonymous with the death of two children and dozens of poisonings. One of them could restart in November 2022 “subject to the agreement of the authorities”, announced this Thursday a spokesperson for Nestlé France. It is from these production lines that the pizzas contaminated by the E. coli bacterium come out.
At the same time, the group revealed several results of internal analyzes carried out by the company itself: these confirm, according to Nestlé, “the most probable hypothesis of contamination of the flour by the E. coli STEC bacterium”. , one of the strains of this bacterium. These analyzes were carried out in May and June on flour delivered to the factory in March 2022, just after the outbreak of this health scandal. This flour was stored in several of the mill’s silos.
Health survey still in progress
Contamination from flour delivered by a supplier was one of the hypotheses mentioned by the boss of Nestlé France in an interview with Figaro in July and by employees in a France Inter survey. But other possible causes have been put forward, such as cleaning and hygiene conditions.
An investigation by the health authorities is also underway, the results of which are unknown at this time. Nestlé France, which says it has taken more than 2,000 samples, claims not to have detected any bacteria on the production lines and their environment (walls, grids, etc.).
“Factory Restart Protocol”
According to the spokesperson, E. coli contaminated frozen pizzas from the Fraîch’Up range produced between October 2021 and February 16, 2022.
The group, which wishes to try to regain the confidence of consumers after this vast health scandal, indicates that it has since put in place “a protocol for restarting” the factory concerning only one of the two production lines, the one which was not concerned. by contamination, again according to the spokesperson. That of Fraîch’Up pizzas remains suspended “until further notice”.