CORA-Chronic Violation of Food Safety laws…SCANDAL in Bucharest,Government Inspections

Cora was fined 43 times in 2015 alone but still continues to violate the food safety laws and put public at risk!

On January 14, 2016, the General Director of the Consumer Protection Agency personally decided to inspect Cora Lujerului…What he found were serious violations resulting in more fines, quarantined products, stop work orders etc.

http://www.digi24.ro/Stiri/Digi24/Actualitate/Stiri/ANPC%20Mancare%20stricata%20la%20Cora%20Lujerului

http://www.ziare.com/preturi/supermarketuri/mancare-stricata-la-un-hipermarket-din-bucuresti-sarmale-mucegaite-fructe-si-legume-alterate-video-1404194

http://www.antena3.ro/actualitate/social/carne-mucegai-cora-334944.html

http://www.dcnews.ro/cora-lujerului-amendat-de-anpc-pentru-mancarea-stricata-pusa-in-vanzare_494723.html

http://www.economica.net/cora-lujerului-amendat-de-anpc-vindeau-sarmale-stricate_113003.html

http://www.romaniatv.net/alerta-la-magazinul-cora-lujerului_268164.html#n

http://www.antena3.ro/actualitate/social/carne-mucegai-cora-334944.html

http://www.romanialibera.ro/economie/companii/bucuresti–peste-800-kilograme-de-fructe-si-carne-stricata–la-cora-lujerului–404492

 

Cora’s brand is decreasing in value quickly. The Facebook Page  https://www.facebook.com/Problemele-de-Siguranta-Alimentara-in-CORA-1377803632532946/

The CEO of Cora, Pierre Bouriez, should take immediate action to change country management and implement drastic improvements before someone gets very sick or dies from violations of food safety laws.

Next step is to start a random sampling program to see if there are any pathogens which, if found, could lead to a shut down of Cora stores.

 

5 Things you wish you knew about CORA

1. Cora may be putting your families health at risk. The lack of food safety standards at cora is a very serious issue that can make you and your children sick. Contamination such as e-coli, li
   steria, staph and salmonella can occur in substandard food safety conditions. In some cases people can die from these illnesses. The recent seizure of 12 tonnes of meat from Romanian hypermarkets including Cora illustrates this lack of standards,
   http://www.hotnews.ro/stiri-esential-20653186-nereguli-auchan-cora-carrefour-peste-12-tone-carne-degradata-confiscate-din-hipermarketuri-abatoare-din-capitala-din-tara.htm.
2. Cora attack and harass their consumers. Catherine Radulescu who owns Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Problemele-de-Siguranta-Alimentara-in-CORA-1377803632532946/ set up the page in an attempt to improve the food safety of Cora’s stores. Unfortunately she found that Cora executives instead of fixing their food safety problems, they filed a criminal complaint against her, clearly intended to bully and try to intimidate her from speaking the truth. Nice guys !
3. Cora may be yet another company bribing public officials. Catherine Radulescu sent a number of complaints about Cora’s lack of food safety to ANPC ( Romania’s National Authority for Consumer Protection). Strangely, each time she received the same response, which states this was the first complaint Cora had received on the subject. Knowing she personally had sent a number of complaints on the same issue, Catherine could tell that the response she received from ANPC was either lazy work by their officials by copy and pasting the letter, or perhaps did Cora employees bribe ANPC officials to issue such a letter?
4. They are ripping you off by selling you underweight products. Yes, it’s true, we have weighed various Cora products at various Cora stores in Romania and found that the real weight of a product is sometimes lower than the actual displayed weight (which we, the consumers, have to pay for).
5. Cora could be the next Apa Nova. The former French CEO of Apa Nova Mr. Bruno Roche was formally charged with bribery and influence peddling in Romania. He was the first foreign CEO to receive such a charge.http://www.realitatea.net/trioul-din-dosarul-apa-nova-la-dna-acuza-ii-noi-pentru-bruno-roche-moisescu-i-semenescu_1819681.html. In this case the DNA went for the companies executives. We can’t help but wonder if the same thing could happen to the owners of Cora such as Pierre Bouriez if they are proven to have brbed ANPC officials.

Bouriez family business done wrong

My research is starting to reveal that the problems are Cora are far greater than I ever imagined, spanning across several countries, including Romania, Hungary and France. I have also discovered that Cora has even started to try to get out of some of their leases in Romania, and as a result there are a number of litigations against them for projects that they failed to enter, or entered and left, mainly in Slobozia, Galleria in Arad and Victoria City in Bucharest.

The violations I found at their Romanian stores are not alone, Cora has made similar violations in Hungary and in France. In Romania there are now over 300 official consumer complaints against Cora. There have been some public protests against Cora (insert photo of protests), we have organised some of these, and the turnout from the public has been great! In Romania, as a result of these 300 complaints Cora has received significant fines!  The number of public complaints even reached a point where the mayor of sector 4 in Bucharest decided to conduct an inspection of Cora’s store in Sun Plaza, with some shocking (but not unexpected) findings

With so much negativity surrounding Cora, from litigations from real estate developers, to food safety violations and fines in several countries, the management of Cora and ultimately the person at the top, Pierre Bouriez should be held accountable.  I can’t help but wonder, if Cora were a public company and had this much bad press and facts mounting against the way they conduct business and treat consumers, shareholders would be calling for the resignation of Pierre Bouriez and other board members. As the Bouriez family are the main shareholder of Cora, it seems that amongst other board members are his brother and sister Francois Bouriez, Jacques Bouriez and Sophie Bouriez. I wonder if the other family members know that their company is treating Romanians like second class citizens. It seems with all these litigations ongoing that its only a matter of time until Bouriez starts to be hit more heavily financially.

Cora, Cora violations, Pierre Bouriez, Cora Litigation, Cora food safety violations

I am a Romanian citizen, who represents a group of people who have growing concerns with the poor food safety at Cora stores in Romania. I decided to not sit back, but rather to take action in the hope that I am heard and force Cora to change. I set up the Facebook group Problemele de Siguranta Alimentara In Cora (Food Safety Issues at Cora)

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Problemele-de-Siguranta-Alimentara-in-CORA/1377803632532946?fref=ts and we have documented the many food safety violations of Cora in Romania.

I did this as I believe the food safety standards are dangerous, that people can get sick, and that I feel that sometimes us Romanians are treated by companies like Cora as second class EU citizens.

You can see on my facebook page that the violations include deli workers not using gloves to handle meat and cheese, relabelling expired products with newer dates, temperatures outside the safe zones in refridgerated areas, blood dripping from meat packets, mould on the fruit, the list goes on…..we have many photos documenting this and I have filed a number of complaints to the relevant authorities.

My page has nearly 10,000 likes and I have been humbled by the messages of support I have received, I believe this is a positive first step to force Cora to change and for the management to take notice of their problems.

Ultimately the blame must sit with the management and owners of Cora, in particular Pierre Bouriez. I’m sure he would not let such terrible food safety standards happen at his local Cora store in France and Beglium.

With a united voice, we can force change and improve Romania.

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