A few days before Easter, families are seeking reimbursement for chocolates that could be contaminated with salmonellosis. And say their loss of confidence in the brand.
Last year, Anaïs, 34, had to scour five supermarkets to get her hands on a Maxi Kinder Surprise, this chocolate egg the size of a rugby ball that her six-year-old daughter loves. But this year, they are no longer missing from the shelves. Many parents, including Anaïs, are reluctant to buy products from the brand now sullied by a series of salmonella infections from its chocolates produced in the Belgian factory in Arlon.
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“I will not buy these products again“, now plagues Anaïs, who had nevertheless acquired “Good Kinder Schokosin anticipation of Easter. She is now shocked by the sanitary failures of this company whose products “are intended primarily for children“. These are the same children who are most likely to experience health complications from salmonellosis infection. The situation is all the more critical a few days before Easter, a period of strong sales which represents 10% of the brand’s turnover over the year, and its second high point after Christmas.
Difficulty getting information
The company was therefore called upon to react quickly. On April 4, it organizes a first “voluntary recall» on some of the products that come from the Belgian factory and at the same time sets up an assistance number. “It sounded empty, before dropping me on an already full voicemail“recalls Anaïs, who wanted to be reimbursed for her products. And for good reason, the number in question is overwhelmed with calls. It was quickly replaced by another, managed by subcontractors, and which has been collecting 20,000 calls per hour since last week, according to Ferrero.
Faced with the difficulty of obtaining answers, nearly 250 people joined a Facebook group dedicated to this health failure. It was created by Mylène, mother of a little boy who fell ill after eating the chocolates. The analyzes seem to show that these two events are not linked, but Mylène nevertheless decided to fight for a refund. “I went to the hypermarket where I bought the chocolates, but they didn’t want to know“, she explains.
After many attempts to reach Kinder, Mylène was finally able to get a contact who promised her that she would receive a refund in the form of a voucher to be used for groceries. But certainly notto redeem them“warns Mylène.
Doubt about the period of contamination
For the parents interviewed, the communication failures of Ferrero, the group to which Kinder belongs, have undermined trust. Because the confectioner was forced to extend the recall measures several times. While only certain batches were initially affected, Ferrero then recalled all products from the Arlon factory. Including, since Wednesday April 13, the Advent calendars for the year 2021, which have certainly already been consumed in December by their buyers.
Above all, Ferrero initially claimed that no trace of salmonella had been detected in its products and that the recall was organized by simple “precautionary principle“. An argument that shocks Cindy, mother of a two-year-old girl. At the end of February, the child had to be hospitalized for almost a week, contaminated with salmonella, which made her experience an ordeal and severely dehydrated her. Cindy, a 28-year-old saleswoman, who was also infected shortly after her daughter, was called by Santé Publique France on March 31. The organization asked him for his receipts and the references of his loyalty cards to follow up on what seemed to be an infection shared by several people in France, but also in Germany and the United Kingdom.
This is how research has made it possible to trace the trail of his infection to the Schoko-bons marketed by Ferrero. “When product recalls started rolling out, I sent them a copy of my positive salmonella test and asked how they intended to compensate us for my daughter’s hospitalization. They simply asked for the references of the products we had purchased. And they apologized for the ‘inconvenience’“, chokes the mother of the family.
Ferrero finally had to admit that salmonella had been detected in the factory as early as December. The company had found them in a filter at the outlet of two tanks of raw materials. Questioned on this subject by our care, Ferrero defends himself by indicating that “even if there were no more Christmas products in stores at the time of the recall on April 4, 2022, the DGCCRF considered that French consumers who still had some at home and had not consumed them, should be informed in such a way more explicit“. The company also specifies that the DGCCRF has therefore ordered the recall of all chocolates produced between October 15 and January 10.
Read alsoRecall of Kinder products: what you need to know about salmonella
From now on, Kinder has the parallel task of ensuring that all the stores have removed the products of the Belgian factory from their shelves. 500 salespeople have changed missions to go around supermarkets, which carry out the withdrawal measures quite easily, according to Ferrero. “several hundred tonsof chocolates, have already been withdrawn from the market. The challenge for Ferrero is now to ensure that the smallest distributors, such as cinemas or bakeries, also respect the rule.
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