The latest news is estimated that 638 people were poisoned by salmonella-contaminated chopped steaks including a dozen were hospitalized. The majority of the persons concerned are of junior high school and high school students in the region of Poitou-Charentes. However the intoxication was also observed in a resort in Haute-Vienne, in a decade of retirement homes and a residence privacy for elderly. The magnitude of this epidemic led to the launch of a national and international alert.
Stéphane Jarlegand, Director of the office of the prefect, says that the risk exposure is now closed because all lots have been identified and destroyed (1200kg of contaminated meat). It is now to know more in detail the origin of this contamination, but we already know that it is an Italian company which produced and exported these chopped steaks. Jean-Pierre Grevez of the departmental Directorate of the Protection of the population, adds that 'confirmation should be given to the completion of an investigation conducted by the Italian authorities' that opened the 4 November.