The case

Botulinum, ten people are under investigation in Calabria, six are doctors. Two brands of friarielli recalled from the market

Two lots under the Bel Sapore label and two lots under the Vittoria label

9 August 2025Aggiornato l’11 agosto 2025 alle ore 13:17

Calabria, allarme botulino: un morto e sette ricoverati, le immagini del food truck sequestrato

4' min read

Recalls for two brands of Neapolitan-style friarielli pasta due to a suspected risk of botulism contamination with a warning to withdraw any products in stock. The recalls are published on the website of the Ministry of Health in the section dedicated to operators. The recall is for two lots under the Bel Sapore label and two lots under the Vittoria brand, in one-kilo packs, from a plant in Scafati in the province of Salerno.

The product, reads the recall datasheet dated 9 August, is marketed by Ciro Velleca, producer Stefano Amura's name, with the factory located in Scafati - Sa. The two Bel Sapore brand lots are batch no.060325 with expiry date 6 March 2028 and batch no.280325 with expiry date 28 March 2028; the two Vittoria brand lots are batch no.280325 with expiry date 28 March 2028 and batch no.290425 with expiry date 28 April 2028.

The Cosenza inquiry

There is a tenth person entered in the register of those under investigation by the Paola Public Prosecutor's Office as part of the enquiry into botulinum intoxication cases in Calabria, which led to the death of two people and 14 others are hospitalised in the Cosenza hospital. The tenth person under investigation is a doctor, who joins the five other doctors already listed in the register, who is also alleged to have examined one of the two deceased patients. Previously under investigation were the street trader who sold the sandwiches, three managers of the companies producing the polluted product, and five doctors from two health facilities in the Cosenza area.

The intoxications occurred after eating sandwiches with sausage and turnip tops bought from a street trader in Diamante, a tourist resort on the Tyrrhenian coast of Cosenza. Among the intoxicated died Luigi di Sarno, 52 years old from Cercola, in the Neapolitan area, and Tamara D'Acunto, 45 years old, while 14 other people are hospitalised in Cosenza hospital. Among those under investigation are the hawker, three managers of companies producing the botulinum-polluted product, and five doctors from two Cosenza health facilities who treated Cercola and D'Acunto before their deaths.

On Tuesday, autopsies will be performed on the two victims. For Luigi di Sarno, who died near the motorway junction in the Lucania centre on his way home, the examination will be carried out at the San Giovanni hospital in Lagonegro. On the same day, the exhumation will be carried out of the second presumed victim of the poisoning, Tamara D'Acunto, a 45-year-old woman from Diamante, who died on Wednesday, 6 August, and whose funeral was celebrated the following day in the church of the well-known tourist resort on the Tyrrhenian coast of Cosenza. The body was then buried in the cemetery of Cirella, a hamlet of Diamante.

The third victim in Sardinia

A third victim is the 38-year-old woman in Sardinia who was intoxicated at the end of July: she had been among the first to suffer symptoms after eating guacamole sauce during the Fiesta Latina in Monserrato, in the province of Cagliari, which took place from 22 to 25 July.

Stationary conditions for the 12 hospitalised for intoxication

The conditions of the twelve people admitted to the hospital in Cosenza for botulinum intoxication are stable. Of the 12 patients, nine are in intensive care and three in less serious wards. Seven people were administered the serum against the toxin. The vials in the Annunciata hospital in Cosenza have been reduced to two and a mission with the 118 helicopter has been arranged for a further supply to San Camillo in Rome.

New admission, is 20-year-old son of patient already in hospital

A new admission for botulin is recorded in Cosenza. In the bulletin of the 'Annunziata - Mariano Santo - S. Barbara' hospital in the Calabrian capital. In the afternoon, a 20-year-old man, son of a patient currently admitted to the Annunziata hospital for botulinum poisoning, arrived in the emergency department with symptoms suggestive of botulism. He was immediately transferred to the intensive care unit and underwent continuous monitoring. Transferred from intensive care to the medical ward was a patient who had undergone an infusion of botulinum antitoxin in recent days. There are currently 15 admissions to the hospital: five in intensive care, three in paediatrics and seven in the medical wards.

The enquiry and investigation

For the examinations, the Paola public prosecutor's office, headed by prosecutor Domenico Fiordalisi, who is investigating the incident, has appointed a collegial body made up of several doctors from the Catanzaro provincial health authority. The examinations will then be followed by further investigations.

The public prosecutor's office entered three people in the register of suspects with the alleged offences of culpable homicide, culpable personal injury and trade in harmful foodstuffs. They are the itinerant trader who allegedly sold the contaminated product from his truck and the legal representatives of two companies that allegedly supplied the foodstuffs used to prepare the products sold. Initial investigations revealed that all those involved had consumed a sandwich, with sausage and broccoli, from the street vendor in Diamante. His vehicle was seized.

The findings, emphasised the public prosecutor's office, also indicate 'that the vehicle was parked in the sun for the entire day, a condition that could have favoured the proliferation of botulinum toxins in perishable products, especially if not properly stored'.

The two sides of the investigation

There are two fronts on which the Paola Public Prosecutor's Office is investigating. On the one hand, the fact that the food truck was the source of the botulinum poisoning for the hospitalised persons and the two deceased seems to have been crystallised. The investigations, after the initial results of the examinations carried out by the Cosenza provincial health authority on the food found in the food truck in Diamante, have focused on how the food was served and not so much on the product itself. By Wednesday, 13 August, more elements will be available from the examinations that will be carried out by the Higher Institute of Health.

On the other front, investigations continue on the medical front, and in particular on whether the doctors who took charge of the patients who later died did not provide them with a timely diagnosis. On this front, any medical records of the two deceased persons and the results of the autopsy ordered by the Paola Public Prosecutor's Office will be useful.