Millions of Kinder products representing over 3,000 tonnes have been pulled from France’s market after multiple cases of salmonellosis across Europe. This was announced by Ferrero’s France Managing Director in an interview with Le Parisien on Thursday. “I came to tell your that what happened was unacceptable. He said, “We’re sorry, we’re sorry.”
“This crisis is very difficult for us. This is the biggest product recall in 20-years. It concerns the French favorite brand, Nicolas Neykov, who is speaking for the first time since the outbreak of the health scandal.
According to him, our investigations revealed that the contamination was due to “a filter located inside a dairy butter tank at the Arlon plant, Belgium” and was caused by “contaminated raw materials or people”. The group would have lost “40%” of its turnover over the Easter period due to the health scandal.
In April, the factory in Arlon in the Belgian Ardennes from which Kinder products were made was closed. All products made on the site (Kinder surprise, Kinder Mini Eggs and Kinder Surprise Maxi 100g) were recalled. Ferrero France’s general manager stated that they had requested a reopening of the site starting June 13. This would allow production to resume as soon as possible.
Neykov stated that 50% of all health checks will be done by “an approved external laboratory”, while the rest are based on an internal selfchecking system. He reiterated the group’s apologies and admitted its failures. On May 4, the group presented a plan to the Belgian authorities.
Mid-April saw 150 cases of salmonellosis in nine European countries. 81 of these were in France. The majority were children younger than ten years.
