Despite the March 18 product recall, Fraich’Up pizzas were found in Franprix stores in Paris.
Buitoni pizzas banned from sale are still present on the shelves of some Franprix stores, according to information from RMC. The brand’s Fraich’Up range had made dozens of people seriously ill, and caused the death of two children.
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A product recall was issued on March 18 to remove these SKUs from sale to the public. But nearly three months after this recall, some distributors continue to market them as a Franprix store, near the Champs-Élysées. “I was alerted by individuals that these pizzas were still sold in this storeconfirms Richard Legrand, the lawyer for several families contaminated by Fraich’Up pizzas. Our colleagues from RMC were actually able to buy a pizza there for 7.45 euros, without any report at the checkout. “I don’t have enough room downstairs, that’s why I left it there“, indicated the manager of the supermarket to RMC. He added that he “disabled barcode» and confirmed to one of our journalists having «removed the rest of the Fraich’Up pizzas from the shelves“. In Paris, another Franprix store also offers Fraich’Up pizzas for sale.
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“ It is a health emergency. We are talking about potentially contaminated products. This is unacceptable. This means that there are potentially new victims“, laments the lawyer. In the event of new victims, it would be the responsibility of the distributor, namely Franprix, which would then be engaged. “ New victims, with proof of purchase, could turn against the distributor. But Buitoni was also supposed to verify that these products were no longer sold, by carrying out checks“says Richard Legrand.
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For its part, the Franprix group claims to have requested the destruction of all pizzas from its 400 franchisees. “We immediately deployed a “task force” system for visual verification in 100% of stores to ensure that our product recall procedure has been applied, coupled with a written reminder of regulatory obligations.“, specifies the sign. “All stores will be rechecked within 48 hours” and “in cases where stores are identified, the goods must be destroyed immediately and sanctions will be taken against the managers“. A manager of a store in the 8th arrondissement of Paris claims to have received a control from Franprix this Monday in her store. The repression of fraud recalls that a distributor who does not comply with a withdrawal-recall procedure risks five years in prison and a fine of up to 10% of turnover.
Buitoni expresses his astonishment:We were very surprised to learn this information in the press. The presence of Fraich’UP pizzas in stores is not acceptable nearly three months after the recall of the product, which was widely reported to distributors and consumers alike. As soon as we had this information, we contacted the distributor to remind all of its franchisees of their obligations in this regard. We are also in the process of re-educating all of our distributors to ensure that this situation does not happen again. says the company.
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