Swiss cheesemaker convicted of involuntary manslaughter

According to the public prosecutor's office, 34 people who ate the cheese were infected with listeria between 2018 and 2020. Keystone / Gaetan Bally

A district court in central Switzerland has convicted a cheesemaker of multiple counts of involuntary manslaughter after seven people died after eating cheese contaminated with listeria. 

Do you want to read our weekly top stories? Subscribe here.

Wednesday’s judgment is not yet legally binding. The court handed down a 24-month prison sentence and a fine of CHF9,600 ($10,500), confirming a report by Swiss public radio, SRF, at the request of the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA. 

Both the custodial sentence and fine are suspended, with a probationary period of two years. The hearing took place as a summary proceeding. 

The court also convicted the man from Steinerberg, canton Schwyz, of multiple counts of bodily harm, multiple counts of grievous bodily harm, and multiple offences against the Foodstuffs Act. 

Listeria discovered during inspection  

According to the public prosecutor’s office, 34 people who ate the cheese were infected with listeria between 2018 and 2020. The cheesemaker was charged with seven counts of involuntary manslaughter, 13 counts of negligent bodily harm, and negligent violation of the Foodstuffs Act.  

Listeria was discovered in products from the now-closed dairy in Steinerberg during an inspection in May 2020. As a result, all customers were told to withdraw the products from sale and the Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office issued a public warning.  

Based on a government-commissioned scientific analysis, it was possible to establish links to cases from 2018, Keystone-SDA news agency was told on request after the contamination was discovered.  

The cantonal chemist filed a criminal charge against the dairy operator in July 2020 and the public prosecutor’s office subsequently opened criminal proceedings.

In people with a healthy immune system, a listeria infection is usually mild or even asymptomatic. In people who are immunocompromised, however, the bacteria may cause severe symptoms which can be fatal. 

Adapted from German by DeepL/kp/ts 

How we work

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to [e-mail].