Hackers Trigger Fires and Food Losses at French Supermarkets

A cyberattack targeting connected refrigeration systems disrupted supermarket operations across France on Sunday night, October 11, 2026, heating refrigerators to 50C in hundreds of stores and forcing retailers to discard food. French authorities launched an investigation into the large-scale incident, which affected equipment used to preserve perishable products.

Les Mousquetaires, the group that owns Intermarché, said approximately 150 of its stores were affected. A company spokesman said refrigeration units had been heated to 50C for six hours, prompting the retailer to dispose of all affected food to prevent potential health risks.

The Paris prosecutor's office described the incident as a large-scale attack affecting connected refrigerators at several major food retailers across France. Dominique Schelcher, chief executive of Coopérative U, also confirmed that his supermarket group had been affected.

In a statement posted on X, Schelcher emphasized the seriousness of targeting equipment essential to food preservation and supply.

"Targeting equipment essential to the preservation of fresh products and to the food supply of the French people is of extreme gravity and is unprecedented." Schelcher wrote.

Supermarket employees reported encountering waves of hot air when opening freezer units on Monday morning. Images shared online showed refrigeration units registering temperatures above 26C, while other photographs showed empty shelves after stores removed potentially unsafe products.

Some retailers displayed notices explaining that the cold chain had been disrupted by a national cyberattack and that normal operations would resume as soon as possible. Carrefour, Monoprix, E.Leclerc and Auchan had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu instructed the National Cybersecurity Agency, known as ANSSI, to investigate the incident, according to a source in his office. The agency said it was coordinating with European counterparts because other countries could also be affected, while examining whether additional French businesses faced risks.

The source close to Lecornu said ANSSI had identified a vulnerability in software supplied by Danish company Danfoss, which provides technology used in refrigeration management systems.

Danfoss acknowledged incidents involving a limited number of refrigeration management systems in France and said the affected units were operating outdated firmware. The company said it had repeatedly advised customers to update supported systems and replace legacy equipment with current-generation solutions.

Separately, Dutch supermarket group Ahold Delhaize said it was addressing a security issue affecting its network and had taken several systems offline as a precaution. Its Albert Heijn stores, the Netherlands' largest supermarket chain, remained open in the Netherlands and Belgium, but its online application and delivery services were unavailable, and electronic price tags frequently displayed incorrect information.

Belgian media also reported that Delhaize supermarkets in Belgium and Luxembourg had been affected by the Ahold Delhaize security issue. Authorities had not established a connection between those disruptions and the attack on French supermarket refrigeration systems.

Separately, a fire was reported at 4:15 a.m. on Monday. Emergency services deployed 150 firefighters and 50 vehicles to the scene, but the cause remained undetermined, and authorities had established no known link between the blaze and the cyberattack.