2023-07-13 22:39:00
The Ferrero factory in Arlon, Belgium, which was already affected last year by salmonella contamination of Kinder chocolate, was forced to partially halt production following the same bacteria was discovered in late June in the “walls and plinths” of the facility, it said Thursday the company, according to AFP.
Chocolate egg Photo: ImageSource / Profimedia Images
Contacted by AFP, Laurence Evrard, the Benelux spokeswoman for the Italian food giant, explained that following the discovery, cleaning of the surrounding production lines was still planned “for the next two weeks”.
To this was added a “technical maintenance” operation, which is why “all production” has been stopped for the moment, another company spokesman said during the evening.
“But the factory is not closed,” Evrard added, and the employees’ wages are “100% covered.”
In a press release published on its website on July 6, Ferrero announced that “part of the production lines” had been temporarily stopped since the previous week, following the discovery of salmonella during “enhanced checks” carried out by his teams.
The group presented this suspension of production as a “precautionary measure”, stating that “no final product has tested positive”.
In April 2022, Ferrero was already forced to stop production at Arlon and, above all, to recall all products manufactured there, following dozens of cases of salmonellosis possibly related to the consumption of its chocolate products were reported in several European countries.
Salmonellosis causes symptoms similar to those of gastroenteritis, sometimes acute: diarrhea and abdominal cramps, mild fever and even vomiting. No deaths were reported.
Under close supervision by the Belgian health authorities, the Arlon factory was finally given the green light to restart under normal conditions in September.
Before it might restart, the Italian giant had to carry out major cleaning operations and investments in new pipelines, as well as hundreds of quality tests.
Suspected of being slow to act on a problem identified as early as December 2021, Ferrero has been the target of judicial inquiries in Belgium and France.
The Arlon factory in the Belgian Ardennes is important to the group, known worldwide for the Kinder and Nutella brands.
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