Nestlé France is being sued in the Buitoni case

Nestlé has announced it is facing criminal charges over a 2022 E. coli outbreak in France that was traced to pizzas.

The judges presiding over the case filed charges last week against Nestlé France and Société des Produits Alimentaires de Caudry (SPAC), a subsidiary of the company.

The criminal investigation is still ongoing and no ruling has yet been made.

During the outbreak between mid-January and April 2022, a total of 56 confirmed and two probable cases with an average age of 6 years were ill due to contaminated frozen Buitoni Fraîch’Up pizzas. It was the largest E. coli-HUS outbreak ever documented in France.

There were 50 cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), two children died and two others had serious complications. HUS is a form of kidney failure associated with E. coli infections that can lead to serious health problems.

Patients tested positive for Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) O26:H11 or O103:H2. Only two people were sick with E. coli O103, according to Santé publique France, the country’s public health agency.

STEC O26:H11 and O103:H2 outbreak strains were isolated from pizzas sampled from patients’ homes and factories.

Nestlé France has agreed to a compensation package for some of the victims of the incident over the past year. The amount was not made public.

In March 2023, Nestlé decided to close the factory in Caudry, France, which was involved in the E. coli outbreak. In February 2024, frozen pizza manufacturer Italpizza acquired the factory.

Italpizza said it would allocate more than €12 million ($13 million) in investments for the modernization and revitalization of the site from 2024 to 2028.

(To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News, click here.)