Les Fromageries de Normandie, part of the Lactalis group, expanded its raw milk cheese recall campaign on Friday, after identifying a "probable source of contamination" of the bacterium responsible for listeriosis, according to a press release.

Lactalis, which had started the recall of its Graindorge cheeses on Monday, went back to the source of the problem by identifying the origin of the contamination, caused "by raw milk from one of the partner farms", indicated the group.

As a result, the Fromageries de Normandie, acquired by Lactalis in 2016, recall "all the raw milk cheeses made with the milk of the producer concerned", i.e. 24,000 cheeses, a spokesperson for Lactalis told AFP.

Bries, coulommiers, camembert and small camemberts from the Normanville, Bon Normand, Pâquerettes, Graindorge, Traditions de Normandie and Nous anti-gaspi brands are thus targeted, without “no intoxication being identified at this time”, specified the group.

A quarter of patients die from listeriosis

The identification numbers of the recalled batches are 010322LI8, 030322LI8, 070322LI8, 090322LI9, 110322LI4, 150322LI3, 170322LI1, and stamp FR 14.371.001 CE, according to Fromageries de Normandie.

The group has also set up a freephone number for the consumers concerned (0800 120 120).

Listeriosis, caused by the bacterium Listeria Monocytogenes, is the second cause of death by food poisoning with, in France, a few dozen deaths per year.

In its so-called “invasive” form, listeriosis is particularly deadly: around a quarter of patients die from it, for example due to neurological complications such as meningitis.

Incubation generally lasts one or two weeks, but can go up to almost three months, and pregnant women are particularly at risk, with twenty times more risk of developing this infection than the rest of the population.

This campaign comes in the wake of a massive recall of frozen pizzas of the Buitoni brand, after several serious cases of contamination of children by the bacterium Escherichia coli, as well as Kinder products suspected of having caused cases of salmonellosis.

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