Wilke Waldecker meat and sausage products

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The Wilke Waldecker meat and sausages GmbH was a German manufacturer of food products , especially meat and sausages . His place of business is in Twist Valley, Berndorf district . The company is registered in the commercial register in Hessen at the Korbach District Court (HRA 1149); the registration number is DE EV 203 EG.

history

The origins of the company lie in a village butcher's shop in Berndorf, which Reinhard Wilke opened in 1936. In 1936 Wilke slaughtered and processed five pigs, one beef and one calf per week. Until 1986 they were slaughtered. Then Rainer Wilke, son of Reinhard Wilke and in the company since 1961, closed the slaughterhouse. Wilke now produced meat for large customers in the hotel industry, for canteens, hospitals and old people's homes with purchased meat. The company was sold to Engelbert Stukenborg, operator of the Düringer Fleischkontor , when it was being renovated and in 2005 . The company was trimmed for efficiency and cost minimization by the new managing director Klaus Rohloff. Klaus Rohloff bought Wilke in 2014. After taking over Rohloff, there were no more salary increases. The old specialist staff gradually left the company. Instead, workers from Eastern Europe were increasingly working at low wages in the factory. Because of the price pressure, Wilke made losses anyway and was close to bankruptcy in 2017, with losses of 2.6 million euros in 2017. Wilke introduced the brands Enjoy Food , Wilke My Taste and Rohloffs-Fleischmanufaktur . A Wilke bistro opened next to the factory, with the advertising message Taste, redefined . As of 2017, the company became dependent on large grocery retailers and was unable to pass on price increases to major customers due to long-term supply contracts. The actually decrepit production facilities had to work at full speed. There was no time to clean the machines. The suspected source of contamination was cutting machines, which inspectors never took samples. In July 2019, the company received an IFS certificate from the testing organization DQS CFS , which all major food retailers require. According to DQS CFS everything was 90 percent in order and the test certificate must only be refused if the error rate is 70 percent.

Wilke last employed around 200 to 250 people. According to his own statement, "around 300 t of the best raw, scalded and cooked sausage items, as well as raw and cooked cured products, as well as canned goods were produced and marketed every week on an area of ​​25,000 m² ".

The goods were sold worldwide to wholesalers and bulk consumers, also under private labels (for example under Aro at Metro AG ).

Because of salmonella , salami sliced ​​meat had to be recalled in six federal states in September 2013 .

Investigations due to hygiene deficiencies in 2019

After three deaths in southern Hesse from pizza salami and boiled sausages contaminated with Listeria , which, according to the Robert Koch Institute's report, are connected to Wilke with a probability of 99.6 percent, production was stopped by the surveillance authorities in early October 2019. The goods were recalled worldwide. Also, the cuts at IKEA was affected by the recall. A total of 37 sick people were reported to the Robert Koch Institute.

An interim legal protection application against the operating ban was rejected by the Administrative Court of Kassel on October 14, 2019 , as proven serious hygiene deficiencies such as spoiled goods, mold and rot in the premises created the risk that otherwise contaminated food would end up on the market. A complaint by Wilkes against this was rejected on November 28, 2019 by the Hessian Administrative Court . The company had to file for preliminary bankruptcy. The remaining stocks of existing food were destroyed from October 23, 2019. Since the insolvency administrator had to report mass inadequacy , Wilke's factory premises are to be sold and, if necessary, put up for auction.

Several former Wilke employees reported that there had been significant hygiene deficiencies in production for a long time. Among other things, rotten meat is said to have been mixed with fresh meat and put on sale under new packaging. Furthermore, workers from Romania and Hungary are said to have been employed under, in some cases, illegal conditions.

The responsible ministry was aware of the problems two months earlier. The Hessian Ministry of Consumer Protection (HMUKLV) reported to the consumer protection organization Foodwatch : "On August 12, 2019, the specialist department of the HMUKLV was informed by the Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) via email that the data evaluations carried out by the Robert Koch Institute ( RKI) revealed that sausage products from the sausage manufacturer, Wilke Waldecker Fleisch- und Wurstwaren GmbH & Co. KG, are suspected of containing listeria - sequence cluster type Sigma 1. "

The Listeria problem first became known in April 2019 during a routine examination in a wholesale grocery store in Balingen .

Only after pressure from Foodwatch did the authorities publish a list of the brands and product names. Foodwatch made public that goods were also sold without a label and were also on sale at Metro and in the IKEA cafeteria . The authorities gave practically none of their findings. The Kassel public prosecutor's office investigated the Wilke owner, Klaus Rohloff, on the basis of initial suspicion of negligent homicide, negligent bodily harm and a violation of the food and feed law .

The Hessian Ministry of Consumer Protection published a list of the food brands affected, which were not Wilke trade names. This was the trade name house Eichfeld , Metro Chief , Service-Bund "Servisa" , CASA , Pickosta , Sander Gourmet , intersection , Korbach , ARO , Findt and Domino , if they bear the identification mark "DE EV 203 EG" of the company Carry Wilke. In addition, all of Wilke's own brands with the identity label "DE EV 203 EG" were affected. 15 vegetarian and vegan products were also on the company's recall list

After a total of five tons of ammonia had been burned from the cooling systems, the Wilke company filed a lawsuit with the Kassel administrative court in November 2019. "The company seeks a declaration that this order is unlawful in order not to have to bear the costs of this measure," said a statement from the court. When a decision will be made on the matter is not yet foreseeable. Electricity was still running at Wilke in Berndorf weeks after the plant was closed, otherwise the ammonia could have caused an accident.

The employees of the food monitoring, animal welfare and veterinary services of the district should have checked Wilke a total of 22 times between December 2015 and September 2017, as the company was classified in the third highest risk class, according to which monthly checks had to be carried out. In fact, only nine controls were carried out between December 2015 and September 2017. If a higher ranking occurs like 2015, something serious must have happened. It is therefore also incomprehensible why the operation was downgraded to a quarterly control rhythm again in 2017. Before December 2015 and after September 2017 the company was in the fourth highest class with quarterly inspections. According to information from former Wilke employees, spoiled meat was hidden for the time of the inspection or removed in a truck and later retrieved and recycled. Employees were able to bypass hygiene locks in the production area and the gates were only closed during controls. Some employees in the production area only wore the intended work and protective clothing when visiting.

In November 2019, the question arose as to who actually made the vegan and vegetarian cold cuts and spreads, organic sausage and Islam-compliant halal products. It became known that among the Wilke products that had been withdrawn from the market there were also organic goods that bore the hexagonal German organic seal, although the company should not have used the organic seal. Wilke should have reported the use beforehand to the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE). At the end of 2018, Wilke had begun a process to obtain organic certification and started test production in January 2019. But regular production was never accepted by the authorities. Nevertheless, the sale of organic goods began. Wilke bought pre-packaged and labeled purchased goods and repackaged and re-labeled the goods as Wilke products. The company was not approved for repackaging, but only for the manufacture of meat products.

At the end of January 2020, the investigations of the public prosecutor's office were expanded to include the deputy managing director and the production manager. It is being investigated on suspicion of negligent homicide, negligent bodily harm and violation of the Food and Feed Code, and now also on suspicion of commercial fraud against the accused.

At the end of January 2020, the last 62 employees were fired after the sale of the entire company had failed. The existing assets should now be realized in order to satisfy the claims of the creditors. The insolvency administrator has reported the so-called mass inadequacy , according to which the bankruptcy estate is insufficient to pay the liabilities. In terms of assets, there were the almost 34,000 square meters of company premises with 25,000 square meters of storage and production space, a residential building and a newly built combined heat and power plant, as well as another property with a residential and commercial building. These properties were offered on a real estate portal on the Internet for a total of 1.7 million euros.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ LEI Reference Data. Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation, August 18, 2019, accessed October 8, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Register entry . In: Business Register. Federal Gazette, accessed on October 8, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b Will I survive this? . Spiegel online from October 12, 2019, accessed November 30, 2019
  4. ↑ Self- description on https://www.wilke-mytaste.de/
  5. ↑ https://www.morgenpost.de/ratgeber/article227261215/Listerien-Todesfaelle-durch-Keime-in-Wilke-Wurst-Ursprung-noch-nicht-cient.html
  6. ↑ Katharina Koerth: Wilke-Wurst: Authorities report shows conditions after the factory was closed. In: spiegel.de. October 28, 2019, accessed October 29, 2019 .
  7. ↑ https://www.focus.de/gesundheit/news/nach-keimfunden-in-wurst-ekel-bilder-haben-die-dramati-hygienezustaende-im-fleischbetrieb-wilke_id_11212284.html
  8. ↑ Ikea: Wilke also supplied Ikea restaurants, cold cuts affected. In: spiegel.de. October 7, 2019, accessed October 29, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Michaela Schießl: "Taste, redefined" . In: Der Spiegel . No. 42 , 2019, p. 76–78 ( online - October 12, 2019 ).
  10. ^ VG Kassel, decision of October 14, 2019 - 5 L 2504/19; Press release from the court: https://verwaltungsgerichtsbarkeit.hessen.de/pressemitteilungen/betriebsschlie%C3%9Fung-firma-wilke-0
  11. ↑ VGH Kassel, decision of November 28, 2019 - 8 B 2440/19; Press release from the court: https://verwaltungsgerichtsbarkeit.hessen.de/pressemitteilungen/betriebsschlie%C3%9Fung-bei-der-firma-wilke-waldecker-fleisch-und-wurstwaren-gmbh-co
  12. ↑ https://www.focus.de/gesundheit/news/listerien-skandal-um-wilke-im-news-ticker-wuerste-haetten-auf-muell-gehoert-dann-wurden-sie-verkauf_id_11203271.html
  13. ↑ Remnants of the sausage manufacturer Wilke are disposed of
  14. ↑ Combined heat and power plant, kitchen, bathroom: Wilke company premises are for sale on the Internet - Hessenschau.de
  15. ↑ https://www.wlz-online.de/panorama/listerien-wilke-mitarbeiter-berichten-ueber-mangelnde-hygiene-zr-13069452.html
  16. ↑ "At Wilke's we mixed rotten meat with fresh meat" , on hessenschau.de. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
  17. ↑ https://www.focus.de/gesundheit/news/wilke-wurst-wurde-auch-an-ikea-restaurants-gelbetrien-skandal-um-wilke-im-news-ticker-listerien-skandal-um-wilke -im-news-ticker_id_11203271.html
  18. ↑ Pascal Tonnemacher: Sausage scandal: inspectors discovered germs on Wilke sausage in Balingen in mid-April. In: zak.de . October 18, 2019, accessed October 21, 2019 .
  19. ↑ Ministry publishes list of brand names Spiegel online on October 7, 2019, accessed on November 30, 2019
  20. ↑ Suddenly vegetarian and vegan products are also being recalled Schweriner Volkszeitung from October 8, 2019, accessed on November 30, 2019
  21. ↑ Wilke Wurst: Ammonia burned from refrigeration - company sues to avoid having to bear costs. November 28, 2019, accessed December 15, 2019 .
  22. ^ Wilke scandal: Nine instead of 22 inspections - Were inspectors deceived? December 14, 2019, accessed December 22, 2019 .
  23. ↑ Where did the Wilke sausage come from? More appearance than “passion” Waldeckische Landeszeitung from November 5, 2019, accessed on May 25, 2020
  24. ↑ News on the Wilke scandal: Commercial fraud? Investigations extended to other employees. January 21, 2020, accessed January 24, 2020 .
  25. ^ After the Listeria scandal: No buyer found for Wilke sausage company. January 24, 2020, accessed January 24, 2020 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 18 ′ 28.6 ″  N , 8 ° 54 ′ 25.2 ″  E