Salmonella resurfaced nearly a year after the initial scandal. According to information from Le Parisien, the bacterium that causes the sometimes severe gastroenteritis was detected again at the Ferrero site in Arlon in Belgium, not in products as in the summer of 2022 but in “wall skirting”, says a Ferrero spokesperson. France. This finding entails the interruption for a period of one month as a preventive measure of “the production lines for the time necessary to carry out the necessary cleaning and sanitation, but no product has tested positive.”
Kinder’s parent company emphasizes that the 725 employees of the Belgian plant, which contributes no less than 7% of the brand’s global production, will not be unemployed: they will continue to earn normally during this period.
No potentially suspect products ‘reached the consumer’
The discovery came as part of reinforced controls for almost a year following the Kinder scandal that affected more than 80 children in France, more than a quarter of whom ended up in hospital. On June 29, Ferrero thus detected salmonella and informed the federal agency for the safety of the Belgian food chain (Afsca). The group adds that even if the bacteria were “far away from the production lines” and there is “no recall in progress”, no product will be delivered “as a precautionary measure”.
The Belgian food policeman even paves the way for subsequent decisions based on the evolution of the “in-depth investigation” that he is currently carrying out: “It goes without saying that if Afsca finds facts or learns information from them during this investigation that they require additional measures to ensure consumer protection, it will not hesitate to take them without delay”.
Source: BFM TV
