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Lactalis has established that the strain of salmonella bacteria that infected more than 30 babies fed with products from its drier in Craon, western France at the end of last year was the same as the one linked to a similar incident at the same plant in 2005.
The company believes that the latest scare was caused by construction work in the building last year, which released dormant bacteria into areas where production equipment was being cleaned.
Twenty-five more reported cases
Separately, the Paris-based medical research Pasteur Institute told French media this week that it had used the latest technolgy to re-analyse 25 cases of salmonella infections in babies between 2006 and 2016, and found that they were caused by the same bacteria strain. This means they “very probably” came from the Lactalis drier, the scientists told France Info radio.
The company will now decommission the contaminated drier and restart the other one in place at the Craon plant.
“Meanwhile, we are already working on a construction project for a new facility,” Lactalis said in a statement, adding that it had no plans to exit the infant formula market.
“Before the alarm was raised on 1 December, we were not aware of the contamination of some of the products manufactured in Craon,” Lactalis assured in a statement.
Some media reports have alleged otherwise and the company is now under criminal investigation.
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