Chef Marco Sacco, two Michelin stars of the Piccolo Lago restaurant in Verbania, was sentenced to two months and twenty days in prison for serving spoiled clams at a wedding banquet in July 2021. The restaurant's director, Raffaele Marchetti , was also sentenced to the same sentence. sentence . According to investigators, the two men are guilty of “unintentional injury and trafficking in harmful food substances, suspended and without mention”. Judge Beatrice Alesci, of the Verbania court, also established provisions of more than 20 thousand euros. 8 thousand euros in total to the spouses who organized the wedding banquet in its hall and 250 euros for each of the 53 parties involved. That's not all: Sacco and Marchetti are also responsible for legal costs of more than 10,000 euros. “We are satisfied with the sentence, we thank the Verbania public prosecutor's office and the Carabinieri section of the judicial police for the work carried out,” comment the lawyers of the civil parties, lawyers Patrich Rabaini, Paolo Patacconi and Lucio Alfonso Liguori.
The defendants' lawyer: “The producer and the importer were inexplicably not involved in the investigation”
While awaiting the reasons for the sentence, which will be filed within 90 days, the lawyers emphasize that the questions of compensation remain open, also from the point of view of the damage caused by a ruined marriage. The star chef's lawyer, Marco Ferrero, says he is saddened by Sacco: “He believes he did his job correctly – underlines the defender of the two accused -. This is a conviction for the responsibility of others – he continues -, since it is a food purchased in sealed packaging whose authenticity should have been guaranteed, as required by law food sector, by the producer then by the importer and who, inexplicably, were not involved in the investigation.” Lawyer Ferrero, stressing that the judge “rightly limited and not narrowly the requests disproportionate damages from numerous civil parties, which exceeded more than 100 thousand euros”, announced that he could appeal.
The wedding banquet
The story concerns the wedding banquet held at the Piccolo Lago restaurant in Verbania, overlooking Lake Mergozzo in Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, in July 2021, during which a clam risotto was served which was later found to be contaminated with the norovirus. In the days following this meal, many people experienced symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, dysentery and abdominal cramps. Several of them went to the emergency room. An investigation by the Nas carabinieri from Turin followed. The clams, of French origin and imported by an Italian company, were served raw, with no indication on the label prohibiting such use.
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