The number of patients continues to increase. Still in connection with the consumption of Kinder brand chocolates, 42 cases of salmonellosis were thus detected in France on April 19 according to Public Health France, against 21 on April 5. If salmonellosis, caused by the presence of bacteria (salmonella), is not particularly dangerous for a healthy adult, the organization specifies that thirteen people have been hospitalized. They have all been released since and no deaths have so far been reported.
The 42 cases listed are spread over 11 different regions: 7 in Ile-de-France, 7 in Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur, 6 in the Grand-Est, 4 in Hauts-de-France, 4 in Auvergne -Rhône-Alpes, 3 in New Aquitaine, 3 in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, 3 in Normandy, 2 in Brittany, 2 in Occitanie, and 1 in Corsica. The median age is 3 years old – half of the cases are in children younger than this age and the other half are older. Girls are almost as affected as boys, with 20 cases against 22.
Public Health France does not exclude the rise of new infections and ensures to continue “its investigations with the families of cases recently reported by the CNR [Centre national de référence de l’Institut Pasteur, ndlr]». Especially since the shutdown of the manufacture of the Italian giant Ferrero in Belgium should “limit the occurrence in France of new cases of salmonellosis in the coming days-weeks”. The Arlon factory is, according to the Belgian daily the Echo, “the largest Kinder Surprise production site in the group” and in product “2 millions” per day.
But Kinder Surprises are not the only chocolates to have been recalled and withdrawn from supermarkets in France. In its list updated on April 14, the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention also lists Kinder Schoko-Bons with milk, Kinder Happy Moments, Kinder Mini-Eggs with hazelnut, cocoa and milk, Kinder Mixes and Kinder Christmas Advent Calendars 2021.