Belgium revokes license of Ferrero chocolate factory after salmonella outbreak

By Agnes Szucs

BRUSSELS (AA) - Belgium’s federal food safety authority on Friday decided to recall all Kinder chocolate products made at the Ferrero factory in Arlon and revoked the license of the production site after a salmonella outbreak.

The Belgian food safety authority opened an investigation after nearly 200 salmonella food poisoning cases were identified across Europe.

The victims, mostly young children, fell sick after consuming Kinder chocolate produced in Arlon.

“A link has been confirmed between these intoxications since the end of March and the Ferrero production site in Arlon,” Belgium’s food safety authority said in a statement.

After the investigation, the authority decided to recall all chocolate products manufactured at Arlon and revoke the factory’s production license.

Laurance Evrard, the company’s spokesperson, admitted on Thursday that they had identified traces of salmonella during a quality control of raw materials on Dec. 15 and stopped the production.

However, Ferrero did not notify the Belgian authority because they treated the findings as “an internal problem.”