Altroconsumo, ‘more transparency on the listeria case in frankfurters’

“For several weeks now, we have been talking about the story that is causing great concern throughout Europe, involving various figures, including companies, authorities and unfortunately also consumers. It is the frankfurters with Listeria, which has already caused 3 deaths and dozens of hospitalizations. The health of consumers is protected by regulation 178/2002 / EC, which defines the procedures to be followed to guarantee food safety. The question arises then which brands are involved in this affair and what really happened “. Thus a note from Altroconsumo. “About a month ago, a recall of Eurospin’s Tobias brand sausage was posted on the Ministry of Health’s website due to the presence of Listeria, a harmless bacterium if the food is eaten well cooked, but which can be lethal if it is eaten raw or lightly seared. A few days later, the Tre Valli farm, which produced the frankfurters for Eurospin and produces those of other well-known brands, invites the points of sale to withdraw its products from the market as a precaution and issues a press release addressed to consumers in which it indicates only the deadlines and the identification mark of the production plant (IT04MCE) to pay attention to, but does not give an indication of the brands involved. in correlation of some clinical cases of listeriosis with the Listeria strain (ST155) found in the products and in the premises of the Tre Valli farm following checks carried out n in the establishment. For this reason, the unsafe foods were immediately withdrawn from the shelves. And all those already purchased by consumers who are not aware of the brands involved? “Asks Altroconsumo.” Article 14 of Regulation 178/2002 / EC states: “unsafe foods cannot be placed on the market”. From a legal point of view, contaminated sausages cannot be included in the definition of “risk product” which, pursuant to Article 14 of Regulation 178/2002 / EC, cannot be placed on the market. This is because the conditions of use adopted by the consumer and the information on the label must be considered. In this case the consumer is warned to consume the product after cooking “, recalls the note.” While there is no violation of the limits imposed by law, it is nevertheless necessary to evaluate the danger of the situation: these products could in any case, perhaps by mistake, be eaten raw or not perfectly cooked by some consumers and pose a serious risk to their health. A fortiori, the invitation expressed by the regulation itself to the national authorities should also be considered: take the appropriate measures to inform citizens by allowing the identification of the food, in the event that there are reasonable reasons to believe that it may involve an risk to human health. In fact, Article 14 provides that the authorities have the right to intervene even in the case of products that, while respecting the regulations in force, can still be considered at risk “. Continues Altroconsumo.” In light of this, Altroconsumo requests that greater clarity, inviting the Ministry to induce companies to recall and make explicit the names of contaminated products. Starting from this case and in view of the upcoming installation of the new Government, the Organization will ask for a meeting with the heads of the Dicastery to reiterate the need to implement a careful and constant commitment over time, together with a real intervention in terms of transparency of information also for the future, in full protection of consumers’ health “, concludes the note.