AUTHORITIES SAY that around 3,600 frozen hamburgers, responsible for an outbreak of food poisoning in France, have been sold in Portugal.
The hamburgers are from the brand label Chantegril and were being sold in Portugal by the supermarket group E. Leclerc. The group has already withdrawn the hamburgers in question from sale and has succeeded in contacting 70 per cent of those consumers thought to have purchased the hamburgers. Most of the produce in question was sold in September and will already have been consumed.
The hamburgers are contaminated with bacteria present in the intestines of young bulls. The bacteria are only destroyed if the meat is well cooked – above 70 degrees.
Latest reports indicate that 17 people, 16 of them children, were hospitalised in the southwest of France. But in Portugal, according to the E. Leclerc group, the situation is under control. As of last Monday (October 31) there were no reported cases of food poisoning.
