Hackers force French supermarket fridges to 50 C, spoiling food across hundreds of stores as Paris opens a probe

French investigators were hunting on Tuesday for the operators of a cyberattack that remotely overrode supermarket refrigeration systems, sending temperatures as high as 50 degrees Celsius, spoiling fresh and frozen food and prompting an inquiry into possible fires, Reuters reported via NBC News. No group had publicly claimed responsibility. Paris prosecutors said a “large-scale” attack was “affecting connected refrigerators in several major food retailers across France.”

Chains hit include Intermarché and its Netto brand, Coopérative U, E. Leclerc, and, according to Reuters and specialist retail coverage cited by AFP, Carrefour Market and Monoprix. AFP said at least 300 Intermarché or Netto shops, more than 100 Coopérative U outlets and several E. Leclerc stores were affected. Coopérative U chief executive Dominique Schelcher said 80 of the group’s roughly 2,000 stores were hit, according to Reuters.

Schelcher called the strike “unprecedented.” “Attacking equipment that is essential to the preservation of fresh products and the food supply of the French people is extremely serious and unprecedented. It is unacceptable,” he wrote on LinkedIn and X, according to CNBC and AFP. European Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Christophe Hansen condemned the attack on X, saying “Food security requires more attention at all levels. Because the weaponization of food has become a reality.”

Les Mousquetaires, which owns Intermarché, told CNBC the attack hit about 180 stores through a service provider that manages refrigeration systems, with damages expected to reach “several million euros.” Intermarché chief executive Thierry Cotillard told BFM TV the nationwide losses could amount to “tens of millions of euros” in a single day, Reuters reported. France Inter said two stores in Haguenau, Alsace, alone cited about €270,000 in spoiled goods.

The affected controllers rely on software from Danish manufacturer Danfoss. Danfoss told AFP that most of the affected units were “legacy” products that “no longer receive software or security updates,” including AK-SM800 and AK-SC355 systems running outdated firmware, and said it had long advised customers to migrate. On Aug. 9, cybersecurity firm Claroty had detailed authentication-bypass weaknesses in the Danfoss AK-SM 800A controller that have since been patched, Reuters reported.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu instructed France’s National Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI) to investigate, and France was coordinating with European counterparts because other countries could also be affected, a person in his office told Reuters. Analyst Felix Aime of Sekoia told Reuters the disruption also touched Spain, Portugal, Poland, Germany and Belgium. Using Shodan, Reuters found at least 4,500 Danfoss interfaces still visible on the public internet on Tuesday; French scanner Onyphe said outdated firmware remained widely represented among them.

Cybersecurity specialists told Reuters the intrusion looked like a basic exploit of known weaknesses and internet-exposed interfaces rather than a sophisticated nation-state campaign. “This is about basic cyber hygiene,” said Ken Munro of Pen Test Partners. “Get it wrong and you get a smelly mess of defrosted food.” Retail association Eurocommerce director-general Christel Delberghe said the incident underlined the need for resilience across the food supply chain.

Sources: Reuters via NBC News (Oct. 13, 2026); CNBC (Oct. 13, 2026); AFP (Oct. 12, 2026); France Inter (Oct. 12, 2026).