On Wednesday, health authorities formally established a link between Pizza Buitoni or the frozen pizzas and several cases of serious food poisoning, caused by the “E. coli” bacteria, AFP reports.
Lying on his hospital bed, his complexion pale, Liam looks painfully at the camera which takes a picture of him. The snapshot was taken on January 28 by his father, during the child’s first day of hospitalization in Poissy (Yvelines). The 7-year-old boy suffers from haemolytic uremic syndrome , an infectious disease which originates from the “E. coli” bacterium, the presence of which has been confirmed in Pizza Buitoni, according to AFP.
“Haemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) is a disease most often of food origin, rare in France but potentially serious at the extreme ages of life; it is the main cause of acute renal failure in children under three years”, sums up the Ministry of Health .
“It’s a bacterium that develops a toxin, and attacks the organs. For our son Liam, it attacked the kidneys, with small markers in the pancreas”, declares today the father of Liam, Geoffrey Luzinsky.
A few hours after consuming a Pizza Buitoni
Shortly before his hospitalization, the little boy had eaten a pizza from the Buitoni brand. This Wednesday, the French health authorities confirmed that the illness he had been seized with could have a direct link with the consumption of the product .
Analyzes “confirmed a link between several cases (of hemolytic and uremic syndrome, editor’s note) and the consumption of frozen pizzas from the Fraîch’Up range of the Buitoni brand contaminated with Escherichia coli bacteria”, established in a press release the Management . General Health (DGS).
For Liam, the symptoms only developed a few hours after eating the pizza. In the hospital, “he was lying in bed, he did not move. He had a diaper, he could not get up, he did not speak”, recalls his father.
A former employee denounces the manufacturing conditions
Three months later, the origin of her son’s illness still seems unreal to her.
“You can’t find your child half lymphatic, in a state where he can’t get up, just because he ate a pizza. It’s not possible”, he exasperated.
Since March 18, the date on which the DGS launched a withdrawal-recall of all pizzas in the Fraîch’Up Buitoni range, the Nestlé group has closed two lines in its factory located in Caudry, in the North. A former employee – who left about a year ago – denounced on RMC the manufacturing conditions on this site, claiming to have seen “mushrooms on the wall”, “cigarette butts” in “catch-up tubs of sauce ” or even “mealworms”.
Nestlé’s industrial general manager, Jérôme Jaton, said on Wednesday that he was “wholeheartedly with these families who have cases of poisoning”, specifying that a toll-free number had been set up: 0800 22 32 42.
Death of two children
In addition to Liam’s case, the Directorate General of Health says 74 other cases are under investigation. “The sick children are aged from 1 to 18 years old with a median age of 7 years old. Two children died”, continues the DGS.
On Twitter, Buitoni’s account, which had not been published since 2019, posted a press release late Wednesday, indicating that “production will not restart until the causes of this contamination have been identified. to allow corrective action to be taken.
The Directorate General of Health recalls that the symptoms which should alert parents occur within 15 days of consumption of the infected product, and are characterized by diarrhea, abdominal pain and vomiting. But also great fatigue, a pale complexion and a decrease in the volume of urine, “which becomes darker”.
If nothing appears after two weeks, “it is also reminded that there is no need to worry”.
Anne-Sophie Warmont and Domitie Bertaud with Jules Fresard.
(AFP)