Recalled cheeses: "no product contamination" detected since mid-June

Associations have denounced the delay in responding between the first detection of the bacteria on June 12 and the massive product recall launched earlier this week. The ministry was questioned on Wednesday about the timeline of the company's actions and the authorities' response.

The cheeses currently sold by the company are "manufactured and marketed under close supervision by the operator and the authorities, with high levels of daily microbiological controls," the ministry told reporters.

Health authorities have identified 21 cases of listeriosis, including two deaths, which could be "possibly linked" to the consumption of pasteurized milk cheeses from the Chavegrand cheese factory, according to a government statement released Tuesday.

"The cases are spread across the entire territory with the exception of the Pays de la Loire," according to Public Health France (SpF), which added in a press release that "they are eleven women and ten men aged between 34 and 95" and that "18 of them are over 65."

The cheeses concerned, Camembert, creamy cheese, or goat's cheese, among others, were marketed "until August 9, 2025" by the cheese factory throughout "the entire national territory", notably in supermarkets, as well as "internationally".

More than 40 batches were recalled between Monday and Tuesday due to suspected contamination, according to the government website Rappel Conso.

"No contamination"

The first recall of Chavegrand cheese products took place after a distributor detected Listeria monocytogenes contamination of a cheese sample on June 12, the ministry explained.

But subsequent checks carried out by the company showed "no contamination" for a month after the alert and "production was able to continue."

It was only later, according to the same source, that a link was established with the cases of listeriosis and "it was as a precaution that massive withdrawals and recalls of the company's products were thus initiated from August 9."

According to the company, the cheeses recalled in June and August were produced on an old production line, which was closed at the beginning of June, replaced by a new line and subjected to "a very reinforced analysis plan", "with several thousand analyses" carried out, which has still not found any trace of Listeria within the cheese factory.

"We are still investigating, but we have several robust working hypotheses (...) To date, the incident is most likely under control due to the switch to the new line (...) This is an extremely serious case and we are working hard," the cheese factory assured on Tuesday evening.

"It's like in a criminal investigation, we work on DNA. Here, the Listeria DNA (found on the first cheese reported and on the infected people, editor's note) are extremely close," Chavegrand's spokesperson, Guillaume Albert, said on Ici Creuse radio on Wednesday.

"Statistically, it's not impossible that it wasn't us. But most likely, we think it came from our cheese," he said.

Request for "transparency"

"How can we urgently shut down a production line in June, increase the number of analyses by a factor of 100, according to their claims, and continue to market potentially dangerous products until August while claiming to have found nothing?" asked Quentin Guillemain, president of the Association of Families Victims of Milk Contaminated with Salmonella (AFVLCS), created in 2017 during the Lactalis infant milk scandal contaminated with salmonella, in a press release.

The association refers to "culpable inaction by the public authorities who left contaminated products in free circulation for months" and draws a parallel with the Lactalis affair.

The NGO Foodwatch also regretted a massive recall that came too late "when the damage was done, " questioning the authorities' actions "between June and August" and the constraints it considered too light on communication and product recalls imposed on companies in the event of contamination.

She demands that "operators, manufacturers and distributors, who often limit themselves to minimal communication, be obliged to be transparent on their websites and social networks" and that they be held accountable.

The Ministry of Agriculture reiterated on Wednesday that "the primary responsibility for food safety rests with operators" and that "in the event of an alert, the authorities supervise the risk management by operators."

"The communication from the health authorities reinforces" the measures taken by the company to recall the products "but does not replace them," he adds.