Contaminated milk: Lactalis demands a billion euros from the Eurofins laboratory

Lactalis is suing Eurofins for more than a billion euros, alleging that the laboratory performed tests incorrectly and is responsible for the salmonella contamination scandal in baby milk, investigative publication L.’Informed reported on Monday.

According to the specialized website, the global dairy giant filed a lawsuit at the end of March in the Paris Commercial Court against two subsidiaries of the Eurofins laboratory (microbiological laboratory Eurofins Ouest and Eurofins NDSC Food France) and their insurers, XL Insurance and HDI Global. .

In the lawsuit, Lactalis holds that the two Eurofins subsidiaries “are liable for damages suffered by (Lactalis) as a result of the latter’s failure to detect that the products were contaminated with salmonella,” L’Informé reported. The dairy group estimates this damage at 1.07 billion euros.

Food poisoning

At the end of 2017, several dozen infants in France became infected with salmonellosis, food poisoning from which can be serious in the weakest. A link was established with their consumption of children’s products, mainly Milumel or Picot brands, produced by the Craon factory (Mayenne).

When asked, Lactalis said it would not make “any comment on the documents contained in the legal file.” We also contacted Eurofins, but did not respond immediately.

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In an interview with Les Échos in early 2018, Lactalis chief Emmanuel Besnier attacked Eurofins without directly naming it, questioning the validity of tests that an “external reference laboratory” had carried out in Craon. “It is very difficult for us to understand how 16 thousand tests carried out in 2017 could not reveal anything. We have doubts about the reliability of these tests,” Emmanuel Besnier said at the time.

In response, the CEO of Eurofins felt that Lactalis’ defense strategy of “abandoning” Eurofins was “extremely unsuccessful”. He then defended the “robustness” of his analysis.

In a separate trial in February, Lactalis was charged with aggravated deception and involuntary infliction of bodily harm, among other charges.