Inside Kaufland: Reporters reveal grievances in dozens of branches

The Supermarket Chain Kaufland is in explanatory shortage due to mouse infestation, mold infestation and endangering bacteria on chicken meat. star And RTL examined 50 branches nationwide and uncovered considerable grievances. In 48 shops they found some heavy and heavy defects: moldy cheese in the fresh food counter, problems with cooling systems, even mouse droppings in a branch in Homburg, eaten food and mice in the baking department. The reporters most frequently documented defective freezers and mold.

In ten branches in ten different federal states star and RTL – In October 2024 – rehearsals taken from different chicken meat products and have them examined by an independent laboratory. Result: 15 out of a total of 30 samples were contaminated with Campylobacters – with faecal germs that can trigger serious diarrhea. In addition, antibiotic -resistant pathogens were found in 11 out of 30 samples. Your consumption can lead to vital antibiotics in humans.

Reinhild Benning, agricultural expert at German Environmental Aid (DUH), called the results “alarming”: The high stress of the meat is “not to be tolerated” and a “risk of human health”. Above all, Benning considers Benning to be dangerous. “In my view, this burden cannot be tolerated at all,” she said.

Documented in 80 percent of the 50 Kaufland branches examined star and RTL also mold and in cooling shelves. The food controller Bernd Stumm evaluates this as a sign of inadequate hygiene: “If I thoroughly clean my cooling weekly, we wouldn’t have anything like that.”

A spokeswoman for Kaufland said: Take the information from the research seriously, some of those of star and RTL described defects “definitely do not correspond to our specifications”. The quality of the products and the protection of customers have “uncompromising priority” for the company, since there is no tolerate. Employees would be trained regularly. There are “defined processes for correct handling of food, which are documented by control systems”.

The spokeswoman also admitted the “pest infestation” in the Homburg branch. One is in “close coordination with the responsible food surveillance authority and experts”. The branch will soon be “structurally and technically” up to date, probably from May.

The spokeswoman wrote about the defective cooling systems and the faecal germs of chicken meat: The complained cooling furniture is mostly still old devices “which are gradually exchanged as part of extensive investments”. Fogged windows and escaping condensation would have no effect on the function of the devices, which ensured daily logged temperature controls in all branches. “In addition to ongoing and occasional cleaning, we have our refrigerated furniture waiting extensively twice a year”.

As for the germs on chicken meat, the star and RTL examined several authorities in the branches of routine samples from chicken meat. “To date, none of these rehearsals have been objected to by the authorities.”