Salmonella: Further Kinder products recalled as Ferrero ordered to shut Belgian plant

Further Kinder products produced at a factory in Belgium have been recalled on Friday as a precautionary action following an outbreak of salmonella.

The development comes as Belgian health authorities ordered Italian confectionary group Ferrero on Friday to suspend production at their Arlon site, after an investigation into dozens of cases of salmonella linked to the company's Kinder chocolates.

Ferrero has extended its recall to include all Kinder products manufactured at the Arlon site between June and the present date. These include Kinder Surprise, Kinder Mini Eggs, Kinder Surprise 100g and Kinder Schokobons.

The new update means all the products in the recall notice, regardless of best-before date, should not be eaten. The previous recall only covered products with best-before dates up to 7 October 2022.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) informed that the packaging of recalled products may not refer to the Belgium factory where they were produced and may include a different contact address, asking consumers to check their products against the list of products in the recall notice.

Ferrero has suspended all operations at its Arlon plant to aid the ongoing investigation and will only recommence operations once the authorities are satisfied that food manufactured there is safe.

The FSA and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) added that they are concerned about delays in Ferrero’s sharing of information during the investigation, which has contributed to time gaps in the recall process and a number of separate recalls having to be undertaken.

Both agencies welcomed the company’s decision today to extend its precautionary recall.

Tina Potter, Head of Incidents Food Standards Agency, said: “Consumers should follow the advice in the latest recall notice, which details all of the products which may pose a risk.

“We have emphasised to the business and the authorities in Belgium the importance of taking as precautionary an approach to their recall as possible and trust that they will continue to put consumers’ needs first in any action they take.”

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Belgium's food safety agency AFSCA-FAVV said that a link had been confirmed between more than a hundred cases of salmonella over several weeks and Ferrero production in southern Belgium.

On Wednesday, Europe's health agency had said it was investigating dozens of reported and suspected cases of salmonella linked with eating chocolate in at least nine countries, mostly among children aged under 10.

The Arlon plant accounts for around 7 per cent of total global volumes of Kinder products, Ferrero said.

The Belgian agency said the decision to suspend 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.

The company said there were internal inefficiencies, creating delays in retrieving and sharing information in a timely manner.

It previously described recalls as precautionary and said that no Kinder products released to the market had tested positive for salmonella.