In the background of Strauss’ announcement of a full recall for the “Elite” plant in the Galilee landscape, following the discovery of salmonella in a number of its products, the company announced this morning (Wednesday) to the Jerusalem District Court a request to approve a class action lawsuit against it. With salmonella in the production line at the chocolate factory and in raw materials. The amount of the lawsuit is at least NIS 10 million.
In addition, yesterday (Tuesday) four additional applications were submitted to the district courts in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv for approval of class actions, dealing with the same case, with the total amount of all five applications being NIS 511 million. Two applications for approval were also filed against companies that are not part of the Strauss Group – Unilever Food and Strauss Ice Cream.
Strauss says that “at this stage, the company is studying the details of the applications, and therefore the chances of their approval as class actions cannot be assessed, and if they are approved, the chances of their success cannot be assessed.”
Following the reports of the large class actions, and the complete recall of the entire plant in the Galilee landscape, the company’s profits for this year are expected to be significantly affected.