Belgium orders Ferrero to suspend production over Kinder-salmonella cases link

The Health authorities of Belgium have ordered the Italian confectionary group, Ferrero, on Friday (April 8) to stop production at its plant in Belgium, after scrutiny into dozens of cases of salmonella linked to the company’s Kinder chocolates.

Ferrero, which has recited several batches of Kinder Surprise chocolate eggs and other products from shelves in Spain, Britain, Ireland and the United States, said other Kinder products made at its Arion site had also been recalled.

The company had not explicitly connect the recall to the reported salmonella cases. After the Belgian order to close the factory, Ferrero has made an apology on Friday, accepting internal failures.

Italian Ferrero has acknowledged that there were internal failures and said it profoundly regrets and sincerely apologizes for the spate of cases of salmonella and a massive recall just ahead of the Easter holiday.

As per Belgium’s food safety agency AFSCA-FAVV, “A link had been confirmed between over a hundred cases of salmonella over several weeks & Ferrero production in southern Belgium.

The authority has ordered the recall of the factory’s entire production of the company’s popular Kinder brand, a huge blow to Ferrero at the height of the Easter holiday season.

In a statement by Belgian Agricultural Minister David Clarinval, “Such a decision is never taken lightly, but the current circumstances make it necessary. The food security of our citizens can never be neglected.”

On Wednesday, the European health agency had said it was scrutinizing over dozens of reported & suspected cases of salmonella connected with eating chocolate in at least nine nations, mostly among children under the age of 10.

The Belgian agency stated that the decision to stop production there was taken after it concluded that information from Ferrero was incomplete. Lifting the suspension would only happen once the plant was shown to be meeting all food safety rules.