PM Cioloș reacts in E.coli scandal linked to Bradet dairy company

PM Dacian Cioloș said on Friday that the Agriculture minister Achim Irimescu shouldn’t have brought into the open the name of Bradet dairy company in the scandal of the sick babies from Argeș if he hadn’t had all elements. The premier reproached the minister that he had communicated on this topic too early.

Asked if he intends to sack the minister, PM Cioloș said that he usually takes decisions after preparing them.

“I won’t comment too much on the matter, as there is no proof yet that the E.coli bacteria tracked down at the sick babies and the bacteria’s strain found in the cheese sample of that company. I gather the Health ministry will make a genetic test to see of there is a connection between that cheese and the illness. The Agriculture minister communicated information that ANSVA should have said too early.

The PM also said that Irimescu had informed him there was a media’s pressure to say all that he knew on this topic.

After revealing the name of Bradet company, Agriculture Minister Achim Irimescu wrote on Facebook that for now there is no evidence on a connection between the E.coli contaminated cheese from Lactate Brădet and the babies from Arges County who died or are sick and , but says he had chosen to make public the name of the company to prevent other illnesses. “I hope the producer was not seriously damaged, but I might have saved the life of some children, and that gives me moral calmness. If other children have been affected, I would have blamed I hid the manufacturer’s brand,”’ Irimescu wrote on Facebook.
But children in Arges were ill since early February, and according to information, there was no evidence that the babies had eaten cheese from that company. Moreover, the sanitary authority was saying a week ago that there were no problems at the manufacturers.
Vice-president of the Arges County Council, Dorin Mărăşoiu, says the Minister of Agriculture Achim Irimescu’s statements are irresponsible – made on Monday about the E.Coli infection of the products produced by Lactate Brădet and noted that the statements were made without a thorough check.
“It is incredible that the Minister of Agriculture, a minister who worked for the European Union, comes without having a thorough check up, without having an investigation concluded, and gives the brand of a company with Romanian capital. That company has a factory built with European funds, it is an European investment which needs to conduct the business for five years. Under these conditions, with such nonsense released to the public (…) the man has no chance to continue the business. Who pays for the European funds? It’s an irresponsible statement of the Minister,” said Dorin Mărăşoiu.
The Agriculture Minister was harshly criticised after making public the name of dairy products Lactate Brated, as the firm risks going bankrupt without real grounds.