A company spokesperson confirmed the millionaire losses that Ferrero faced due to the contamination of one of its filters, which caused some 150 cases of the disease in Europe
FILE PHOTO: Kinder Surprise chocolate eggs, a brand of Italian confectionery group Ferrero (REUTERS/Caren Firouz)
Kinder had to withdraw more than 3,000 tons of products from the market due to an salmonella outbreak, which has cost several tens of millions of euros, he said on Thursday a company official told the French newspaper Le Parisien.
Nicolas Neykov, director of Ferrero France, said the contamination came from “a filter located in a dairy butter vat”, at a factory in Arlon, Belgium. He added that the contamination could have been caused by humans or by raw materials.
Indeed, chocolate products made at the Arlon factory in southeastern Belgium, contained salmonella, resulting in 150 cases in nine European countries.
Nutella in a hypermarket in Nice, France (REUTERS/Eric Gaillard)
Eighty-one of them occurred in France and mainly affected children under 10 years of age.
The factory closure and health problems dealt a severe blow to its owner, the Italian confectionery giant Ferrero, at the height of the Easter holiday season, when its Kinder chocolates are highly sought after in supermarkets.
“This crisis is heartbreaking. It is the largest product disposal in the last 20 years”, said Neykov.
The company hopes to be able to restart the factory next month< /b>, with 50% of health and safety inspections performed by an approved “external laboratory” in the future, instead of the previous system of internal reviews only.
“We have requested a reopening from June 13 to relaunch production as soon as possible”, he added.
Ferrero Rocher chocolates produced by the Italian factory Ferrero (REUTERS/Hasnoor Hussain)
Ferrero and Nestlé, before the justice in France
Two criminal lawsuits were filed last week in France against the food giants Ferrero and Nestlédue to cases of serious poisoning from the ingestion of Kinder (Ferrero) chocolate products and Buitoni (Nestlé) frozen pizzas.
This was announced by the NGO Food Watch after several cases of E.Coli poisoning were reported in March, in the case of precooked pizzas, and salmonella in chocolate.
”We demand that the two matters be thoroughly investigated and responsibilities be purged as quickly as possible so that the victims have answers to their legitimate demands”, lawyer François Lafforgue urged in a statement released by Food Watch.
Salmoneosis (Photo: Canal Salud IMQ)
The NGO specified that the goal is also to “end the impunity of multinationals”.
Buitoni’s factory in Caudry (northern France) was subject to a temporary ban by the authorities to produce pizzas, while Ferrero’s plant in Arlon (Belgium) was closed and is due to reopen in June. b>
The criminal complaints were filed with the public health department of the Paris Judicial Court by the TTLA law firm on behalf of Food Watch and several victims alleging seven serious infractions , among them “aggravated falsehood”, “involuntary threats against the integrity of the person” and “endangering third parties”.
In April, when the scandal broke , lthe French Prosecutor’s Office had already announced an investigation for “involuntary manslaughter”, “falsehood” and “endangering third parties” for the death of the two children for eating FraIch’Up pizzas ( Buitoni).
(With information from AFP and EFE)
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