Chocolate manufacturer Ferrero announced today that it will temporarily withdraw from the Portuguese market, “as a precautionary measure”, some Kinder products made in Belgium, after some cases of salmonella were detected in northern Europe.
In a note sent today to the Lusa agency, Ferrero Ibérica states that, “voluntarily and as a precautionary measure, it ordered the withdrawal of some batches of products manufactured in Belgium from the Portuguese market, after some cases had been registered in northern Europe of salmonella”, being the “Kinder Schokobons (all formats), Kinder Supresa Maxi T100grs and Kinder Happy Moments” in question.
The manufacturer warns that only those products with an expiry date between May 26, 2022 and August 21, 2022 will be withdrawn, “the remaining Kinder Surprise eggs of any format, the Kinder Gran Easter egg, will remain on sale on the market. Surprise and the rest of Kinder products”.
Ferrero Ibérica “has taken the decision to voluntarily withdraw from the Portuguese market some batches of the aforementioned products as a maximum precautionary measure, despite the fact that the presence of salmonella was not detected in the analyzes carried out on any Kinder product”, says the brand in the note sent. to Lusa.
Ferrero added that it is “cooperating with the Portuguese health authorities to remove the products as quickly as possible” and that it is “in contact with the establishments where the indicated products are marketed to proceed with their immediate withdrawal”.
Ferrero “recommends that people who have purchased the products affected by the withdrawal do not consume them and that they contact the Consumer Care Service through the website www.ferrero.pt or the telephone number 30880507536, for more information”.
On Tuesday, the Directorate-General for Food and Veterinary Medicine (DGAV) said that it was following the case of Kinder chocolates withdrawn from the market in France and that the information collected indicated that the contaminated batches did not come to Portugal.
“As far as the traceability of operators at this moment allows us to say, the contaminated product batches did not come to Portugal”, says the response from the director general of Food and Veterinary, Susana Guedes Pombo, sent to Lusa.
The official added that Portugal, through DGAV as the national contact point for the Rapid Alert Network for Food and Feed (RASFF), “has been closely monitoring this matter, with the involvement of all national and European authorities, including the Directorate-General for Health”.
Several Kinder-branded chocolate products made in Belgium have been withdrawn from the French market on suspicion that they may have been the reason for 21 cases of salmonella identified in the country, eight of which required hospitalization.
The Directorate-General for Health of France explained in a statement that its investigations revealed that the 15 patients who have been questioned so far reported having consumed products from the Ferrero brand in the days prior to the manifestation of intoxication symptoms.
All these chocolates were made in the same Ferrero factory in the Belgian city of Arlon.
The salmonella cases located in France and potentially linked to the consumption of this chocolate – reported in children with an average age of four years – have the same strain responsible for outbreaks in the United Kingdom and Ireland, also associated with certain Kinder products, stressed the authority of French health.
Ferrero began its history in the small town of Alba, in Piedmont, Italy, in 1946, currently has a consolidated turnover of over 12.3 billion euros and is among the market leaders in sweet packaged foods throughout the world. world, with 37 thousand people and 31 production units.
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