Albert Amgar, blogmaster of France’s coolest food safety blog, wrote me after I posted about the 88 people sick with Salmonella from dry sausage in France.

What I had missed was that although the outbreak had been on-going for at least 10 weeks, the French Institute for Public Health Surveillance did not publicly report the outbreak until May 28, 2010, and used a Salmonella naming system that would mean nothing to most people (Salmonella 4,12 :i :-).

No company was named, no statement was released by anybody telling consumers to beware certain foodstuffs.

It was the Belgians who did that, through a press release entitled, La société Salaisons du Lignon adopte le principe de precaution et lance un plan de rappel sur un produit: Saucisse sèche droite La Pause Auvergnate, that identified the Lou Mountagnard brand of dried sausages.

The pdf press release file is linkable through Albert’s blog at http://amgar.blog.processalimentaire.com/?p=8937, where he asks, in my broken English summation, why do French citizens, 88 who are confirmed ill, have to learn details about contaminated product from a city in Belgium? (The image, below left,  is from Albert’s blog.