In the Vosges, the parents of an infant had a bad surprise: they found a worm in their baby’s Gallia infant milk. Outraged, they did not hesitate to file a complaint.
After a used bandage found in a box of infant milk, this time, it’s a worm that young parents from the Vosges discovered with horror in the box of Gallia milk they had just bought for their baby. They immediately decided to file a complaint and the box of infant milk was sealed for analysis. There is no doubt about the presence of the intruder since the health authorities, the Danone group (holder of the Gallia laboratory) and the association for children’s health have since confirmed the presence of the worm in the milk box.
Asked about the presence of the undesirable, the communication director of the agri-food group Danone nevertheless tried to explain that a worm could not get into the milk powder during the manufacturing process: “The milk powder does not pass through the open air. It travels through closed pipes and is packaged in a protective atmosphere. Before packaging, the milk powder passes through a filter with 2 mm mesh, designed to prevent the presence of any foreign element”.
Since 2020 the problems have been piling up for the laboratory
For 18 months, the‘children’s health association created following the Lactalis scandal in 2017, says it receives many calls from scandalized parents. “It’s something regular, and, at times, there are peaks” explains the president of the association, Quentin Guillemain in Vosges Matin. “Between August 29 and September 6, 2022, we received three emails concerning larvae found in Gallia milk”.
Since 2020 several people have filed a complaint against the Gallia laboratory because of larvae found in infant milk cans, but none have ever succeeded. During the first complaints, the boxes were sent back to the Gallia factory for analysis, the group then announced that no insects were present in the milk boxes. The medical director had explained the parents’ findings, saying: “the parents had taken ‘agglomerates of powder, lumps’ for worms”. Today the situation is different, the presence of the worm has been confirmed by three entities including Danone and a control procedure has been launched in the factories in Ireland. Something to follow…
For the moment, the Gallia laboratory does not intend to recall the boxes of contaminated milk.