Nestle issues French ice cream alert

PARIS, France -- The French division of food giant Nestle has recalled ice cream which it said could be contaminated by listeria.

The Swiss company warned on Saturday that anyone who had eaten the product to contact their doctor if they felt ill. Listeria can be deadly for the most vulnerable victims.

Nestle said 39 boxes of the ice-creams -- of the Gervais Mystere brand -- were still unaccounted for and that the firm had warned a string of shops and supermarkets to withdraw the suspect stocks.

The ice cream alert is the latest food scare to hit France and comes at a time of a new "mad cow" crisis following the withdrawal from shops last month of beef potentially infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

Nestle France spokesman Eric Boullet said the alert had been issued on Friday night "after we got confirmation that the listeria was pathogenic."

Most of the load of 114,000 boxes of the ice-creams had already been recovered, he said.

"We are asking consumers not to eat them and to take then back to the shop where they bought them," Nestle France said in a statement.

"This warning above all concerns pregnant women, old people and people with immunodepressive problems.

It advised anyone suffering from fever or headaches after eating the ice creams in question to contact their doctor.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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