Pierre Hinard, whistleblower behind the spoiled meat trial

• Castel Viandes is a company based in Châteaubriant (Loire-Atlantique), north of Nantes.

• The group and three executives are being prosecuted for deceiving the quality of goods, marketing products harmful to health and obstructing health checks.

• Pierre Hinard worked at Castel from 2006 to the end of 2008. He was fired after alerting the health authorities.

“I am waiting for a strong signal to be sent by justice.

We can no longer play like that with people's health.

“This Thursday, Pierre Hinard will be at the Nantes criminal court to attend the trial of the Castel Viandes company and three of its leaders, prosecuted in the so-called “repackage” case, spoiled meat which would have been resold despite everything. to be consumed there between 2010 and 2013. The 50-year-old will not be a spectator like the others.

Today an organic breeder of Salers cows in Saint-Aubin-des-Châteaux (Loire-Atlantique), he has filed a civil action so that the "truth is restored".

It was he who was behind the Castel "scandal", a major slaughterhouse in Châteaubriant, north of Nantes, by first alerting the veterinary services in 2008 and then, five years later, the gendarmerie, which finally triggered investigation.

Recruited by Castel in 2006 as quality manager, Pierre Hinard had “first suspicions” of irregularities in 2007. “We had a steak problem at Flunch.

The restaurant complained that customers had fallen ill.

I tried to understand and I realized that it was not an accident.

There was, behind my back, an organized system of reselling spoiled meat.

»

“An hour later, I was summoned and fired”

The agronomist by training evokes "returns of unsold items which were recut and reshipped", "stained and smelly processed meats", "maggots which fell into the chopping machine", "breaks in the cold chain", “bacteriological analyzes which were falsified”… “For the management it was never serious.

She told me that at worst the consumers would have a good diarrhea.

The answer was always economic.

We had to sell the stock, ”says Pierre Hinard.

The executive accepts a time to be silent.

Until the reshipping in his back of "an umpteenth batch destroyed a year before".

“I didn't want to be responsible for children dying or becoming seriously ill.

I went to tell everything to the veterinary inspector.

An hour later, I was summoned by my management and fired*.

Castel was protected by an enormous network of influence.

I learned it the hard way.

»

"The state has neither the will nor the means to control"

Isolated, criticized by employees and even taken to court by his former employer, Pierre Hinard tries to work as best he can on his own until the media explosion of the case in 2013, then the publication of a book

the following year.

“We had to go through it to protect lives.

They pointed the finger at me, made me out to be a liar.

But I was only a witness.

You have to realize that Castel is being prosecuted for faults committed after my dismissal.

It means that there was no questioning.

It's insane.

»

Bitter, including vis-à-vis the agricultural authorities whom he reproaches for not having supported him, Pierre Hinard fears that the Castel episode is not an isolated case in France.

“With money at stake, the temptation to cheat is very strong.

And the state has neither the will nor the means to control as it should.

When you see the Buitoni pizza affair recently, it obviously brings back memories.

All of this could be avoided.

It turns me around.

»

*

Justice

Angers: Prison closed for a butcher whose meat was full of maggots

Company

Food: Seven million fake meat burgers sold to charities

• Justice

• Nantes

• Meat

• Contamination

• Company

• Pays de la Loire