Salmonella infestation known for a long time
Ferrero factory in Belgium closed by authorities
04/08/2022, 4:00 p.m
The major recall of children’s products also affects Germany. Now it turns out that the manufacturer Ferrero discovered salmonella in a Belgian factory in December last year, from which the affected confectionery probably originates. The regulator shuts down the factory.
The suspicion of salmonella at Ferrero has taken on a new dimension. As early as December, the confectionery giant became aware of a salmonella case in the factory in Arlon, Belgium, which has been the focus of the food authorities for a few days. This emerges from a communication from Ferrero France in Luxembourg.
Ferrero has to stop production at the Belgian factory for the time being. The Afsca supervisory authority announced that it would revoke the production license for the Arlon plant in the south-east of the country. All products from the factory must therefore be recalled, regardless of their production date. According to the announcement, this includes all “Kinder Surprise”, “Kinder Mini Eggs”, “Kinder Surprise Maxi” and chocolate bons that were manufactured in Arlon. Afsca also asked all distributors to withdraw related products from retail outlets. The Arlon plant may only reopen once all food safety rules and requirements have been met.
Salmonella found in sieve
According to Ferrero’s announcement, on December 15, Salmonella was detected in a strainer at the outlet of two raw material tanks at the Arlon site. The products made from it were then held back. The filter has been replaced and controls on work-in-progress and finished products have been increased, Ferrero said. The announcement does not explain why Ferrero did not recall the products already in circulation at the time.
In the past few days, the company has recalled products from its “Kids” line of confectionery in a number of countries – now also in the United States, according to a company announcement released by the US Food and Drug Administration. The German market has also been affected by the recalls of the past few days, including selected batches of “Kinder” surprise eggs and “Kinder” chocolate bons as well as some Easter items.
These are just precautionary measures, as the company has emphasized several times. Although none of the “kids” products tested positive for salmonella, Ferrero takes the matter very seriously, “because consumer protection is our top priority.” But the mere suspicion of a salmonella infestation could leave its mark on the supermarket shelves – especially since the Easter business is considered lucrative for confectionery manufacturers.
criticism from consumer advocates
However, the consumer organization Foodwatch has criticized the company heavily. “If such a mistake happens, the population must be warned immediately,” said Andreas Winkler from Foodwatch. In his opinion, personal responsibility and self-monitoring by the manufacturers are not sufficient, “transparency obligations for authorities are necessary so that cases like Ferrero must be made public immediately.”
But what was the trigger for the many recalls of the past few days? At the beginning of the week, cases of salmonella were first reported in Great Britain and France. In the UK, it was mainly young children who contracted salmonella, the PA news agency reported on Monday. Shortly thereafter, Ferrero recalled some batches of “kids” surprise eggs. The food safety agency said the recall had “a possible link to a salmonella outbreak.”
In France, too, Ferrero recalled products at the beginning of the week after 21 cases of infection, according to the health authorities in Paris. According to them, it is genetically the same salmonella that is responsible for an outbreak of salmonella diseases in Great Britain and Ireland. The affected “children’s” chocolate products are all manufactured in the said factory in Arlon, Belgium. In total, Ferrero has around a dozen plants in Europe.
Recall extended in Germany
By working with food and health authorities in Europe, Ferrero has received new data showing a match between the salmonella cases reported in Europe and its own plant in Arlon, the company said. On Thursday, Ferrero also extended its product recall in Germany to some Christmas items. These are, among other things, special surprise eggs and advent calendars, each with a best-before date of April 20, 2022, as can be seen from one on Thursday in the portal foodwarning.de published overview.
Only Bavaria, Berlin, Hesse, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein are affected by the extension of the recall, according to the portal operated by the Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety and the federal states.
In Europe, the EU food safety authority EFSA and the EU health authority ECDC started investigations. The two authorities had spoken of 105 confirmed salmonella cases and 29 suspected cases on Wednesday, most of them in children under the age of ten. Certain chocolate products have been identified as a likely route of infection.
“A salmonella disease manifests itself within a few days after infection with diarrhea and abdominal pain, sometimes with vomiting and a slight fever,” says the consumer advice center. In healthy people, the symptoms usually subside after a few days. In certain cases, however, severe disease progression can occur, especially in infants, small children, the elderly and people with a weakened immune system.