Hackers Heat Supermarket Fridges to 50°C in France Cyberattack

Hackers reportedly heated supermarket fridges to 50°C in France, spoiling food stocks, while stores in the Netherlands and Belgium faced separate IT outages.

Supermarkets in France are dealing with large food losses after a cyberattack reportedly targeted refrigeration-control systems and forced equipment to heat instead of keeping products cold.

According to French reporting citing BFMTV, the attack began overnight from Sunday to Monday and affected refrigeration systems linked to Danish manufacturer Danfoss. The unknown attackers reportedly abused the defrosting function in older control software, setting some equipment to heat continuously, with temperatures said to have reached 50°C.

The cyber attack impacted several major supermarket chains, including Intermarché, Super U and E.Leclerc. Metro stores and smaller independent businesses, including butcher shops, were also reported to have been hit.

French outlets including Clubic , 01net and Capital reported that around 150 Intermarché stores may have been affected. The total number of affected locations has not yet been confirmed.

Stores Forced to Throw Away Food

The impact was visible quickly because the cyberattack hit systems used to preserve fresh and frozen products. Once the cold chain was broken, stores had to discard goods rather than risk selling unsafe food.

In Haguenau, Alsace, an Intermarché store reportedly lost its frozen-food stock, worth €50,000. A nearby Super U reportedly discarded both fresh and frozen products, with losses estimated at €220,000. An E.Leclerc store in the same town was also affected, although its losses had not been calculated at the time of reporting.

The confirmed losses from the two Haguenau stores alone were reported at €270,000. If the number of affected stores is confirmed, the total damage could reach several million euros.

Coopérative U acknowledged that refrigeration installations in several stores had been affected and said teams were working with refrigeration specialists to restore service. Intermarché also reportedly warned internally that several stores had lost frozen products.

Danfoss Systems Named in Reports

The reported target was not supermarket payment systems, customer accounts or e-commerce sites, but equipment used to control refrigeration.

Refrigeration-control software can manage cooling, temperature settings and defrost cycles. A defrost cycle is normally a controlled process used to prevent ice buildup, but the reports say attackers manipulated that function so equipment heated for far longer than intended.

Danfoss has been named in French reporting as the supplier of the affected refrigeration-control systems. At the time of writing, the reports reviewed by Hackread.com did not include a public statement from Danfoss confirming the technical cause or naming the affected software versions.

The identity of the attackers has also not been confirmed. It is also unclear whether the attack involved exposed remote access, compromised credentials, unpatched vulnerabilities , or another route into the control systems.

Dutch Retailer Reports Separate Cybersecurity Incident

A separate retail disruption is also affecting Ahold Delhaize brands in the Netherlands and Belgium, although no public evidence currently links it to the French refrigeration attack.

Dutch public broadcaster NOS reported that Albert Heijn, Etos and Gall & Gall have suffered disruption since Sunday afternoon after what parent company Ahold Delhaize described as a “cybersecurity incident.” Albert Heijn had earlier referred to it as an IT incident.

The disruption was not limited to store systems. Albert Heijn’s websites, apps and customer service were unavailable, online grocery deliveries were paused, loyalty systems stopped working and some electronic shelf labels still showed last week’s promotional prices. Delhaize in Belgium also reported problems, with customers unable to place new online orders or reach customer service.

Ahold Delhaize said it had taken immediate measures to protect its IT environment, including temporarily switching off some systems as a precaution. The company said it was investigating the incident and working to restore services, with protection of customer, employee and partner data as a priority.

For now, the French refrigeration attack and the Ahold Delhaize disruption should be treated as separate incidents unless investigators or the companies say otherwise.