The Dutch food safety agency NVWA has failed in its inspections at the meat products company Offerman. This is apparent from a study by the Dutch channel RTL Nieuws. At Offerman, the danger of listeria was underestimated for years, it turns out. The company received several warnings about expiration dates, but nothing was done about them.
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In the end, six people died as a result of infection with the listeria bacteria. About 35 people became seriously ill, two women had a miscarriage. The Belgian Ter Beke, which had taken over the factory from Aalsmeer at the end of 2017, had it closed after the food scandal.
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RTL Nieuws published a timeline of the listeria scandal on Thursday, which broke out in the autumn of 2019. This shows that the processed meats company had already received a first written warning on 30 June 2016. An inspector from the NVWA questioned the best-before dates that the company used. In the same year, listeria is found in creme pâté and year later in beef sausage. In October 2017 there was a first case of illness. “The risk estimate was low; the presence of listeria was below the standard,” the regulator said in a response on Thursday.
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The NVWA sent three warnings to Offerman, but ultimately did not intervene, according to the documents published by RTL Nieuws. Since July 2017, there would not even have been a single inspection. The NVWA inspectors were far too busy and gave priority to inspections at other companies.
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There was also a judicial investigation, but in the end Ter Beke was not prosecuted, due to a lack of evidence of a crime.
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