French dairy group Lactalis will pay damages to the families of all children who became ill after consuming products contaminated by salmonella.

President of Lactalis, Emmanuel Besnier, announced the company’s decision to offer compensation during an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche, his first appearance in the media in almost 20 years. Besnier declared: “we will compensate every family which has suffered a prejudice,” but neglected to give details about the amount of compensation that would be offered.

The announcement follows three separate recalls of the company’s contaminated products. In early December, Lactalis informed French authorities of 20 cases of salmonella poisoning in infants aged below six months. As a result, the health authorities launched an investigation and the group recalled 12 of its infant products.

Later in December another five cases were reported, including one from a Lactalis product not included in the original 12 recalled products. This led the French Economics Ministry to demand a recall of 620 batches of Lactalis’ formula milk and baby food products under the brands Milumel, Picot and Celia. Lactalis believed that the contamination had occurred at their Craon factory in May 2017 so the recall included all products manufactured there since February 2017.

Following a meeting between Besnier and the French finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, a third recall was announced on 12 January. By this point 37 babies in France and one baby in Spain had fallen ill after consuming Lactalis’ products–as well as a suspected case in Greece. This third recall applied to all infant formula issued from the company’s factory in Craon irrespective of their production date. The recall applies to approximately 12 million items across 83 countries.

The contaminated drying tower at the company’s Craon factory has also been closed. Bernier said it is likely to remain closed for several months whilst investigations are underway. In his interview with Le Journal du Dimanche, Bernier stated: “we are going to draw lessons from this crisis and set out an even stricter hygiene framework in collaboration with the authorities.”

French authorities welcomed Lactalis’ compensation declaration. However, they made it clear that the judicial investigation to determine specific responsibility for the contamination would continue. A spokesperson for the government, Benjamin Griveaux, told BFM TV “paying compensation is good, but money cannot buy everything.” The authorities are also going to look at why some major French distributors continued to sell Lactalis products after they had been recalled.

Victims of the contamination were less impressed by the offer of compensation. President of Lactalis Victims Association, Quentin Guillemain, said the victims’ silence could not be bought and they wanted real answers about how the contamination occurred. Additionally, the Victims Association criticised Bernier and his company for failing to share with the French authorities that internal tests found salmonella traces on a broom and on the tiles of a drying tower at the factory in Craon in August and November 2017.

Fallout from the contamination crisis will likely damage the company’s reputation worldwide, but is especially concerning for Lactalis’ business in China. Foreign suppliers of dairy products have become more trusted in the Asian country as a result of a 2008 melamine-tainted milk scandal by local suppliers that killed six children.