Rome There could hardly have been a more inopportune time for Ferrero: a good week before Easter, the Nutella manufacturer from northern Italy is withdrawing dozens of chocolate products from several European markets, including Germany. Affected are the surprise eggs (Kinder Surprise), which are popular with children and collectors alike, as well as Kinder Schoko-Bons and the products Kinder Suprise Max and Kinder Mini Eggs. Ferrero has known about the danger for many months.
Salmonella cases had appeared in several countries, all of which apparently can be traced back to a factory in Belgium. The Belgian supervisory authority Afsca announced on Friday that it would revoke the production license for the Ferrero plant in Arlon. All products from the factory must therefore be recalled, regardless of their production date.
Ferrero first found salmonella in mid-December last year: At that time, they were discovered in a sieve at the outlet of two raw material tanks in the Belgian plant, as the company explained. The products made from it were then held back, the filter replaced and the controls increased, Ferrero said.
On Friday, the group’s headquarters in Alba, a municipality in the north-eastern Piedmont region, admitted errors in handling the recalls. There were “internal inefficiencies” that “cause there were delays in recalls and information sharing.” That is why the investigations were not carried out as quickly and efficiently as necessary, agencies quoted from the communication.
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“Ferrero is deeply saddened by what happened,” it said. After the incident, everything possible is being done to ensure that customers’ trust is not lost.
Callbacks also in Germany
As a precautionary measure, Ferrero also recalled some batches of chocolate bons in its home market of Italy on Friday. So far, the USA and France have been affected, but also Germany, including with selected batches of “Kinder” surprise eggs and “Kinder” chocolate bons as well as some Easter items.
On Thursday, the product recall in Germany was also extended to Christmas items. Among other things, there are special surprise eggs and advent calendars, each with a best-before date of April 20, 2022, as the portal Lebensmittelwarning.de wrote. Bavaria, Berlin, Hesse, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein are affected.
Among other things, the children’s surprise egg three-pack with the best before date between April and June 2022 was recalled. Advent calendars are also affected.
(Photo: dpa)
These are purely precautionary measures, as Ferrero emphasized several times. Although none of the “children’s” products tested positive for salmonella, the matter is taken very seriously, “because consumer protection is our top priority”. But the mere suspicion of a salmonella infection could leave traces on the supermarket shelves – especially since the Easter business is considered to be particularly lucrative for confectionery manufacturers.
The consumer organization Foodwatch was heavily critical. “If such a mistake happens, the population must be warned immediately,” said Andreas Winkler from Foodwatch on Friday. In his opinion, personal responsibility and self-monitoring by the manufacturers are not sufficient, “transparency obligations for authorities are necessary so that cases like Ferrero must be made public immediately.”
Giovanni Ferrero: Become a billionaire with Nutella and Hanuta
Good products, good results: That is what the company expects of itself. The damage to the image cannot yet be estimated. The Ferrero family, one of the richest entrepreneurial dynasties in Italy, will now have to do everything possible to dispel consumer doubts.
In 1946, confectioner Pietro Ferrero founded the company and invented Nutella, the nut nougat cream that is so famous today. The second generation focused on massive expansion and conquered the Chinese market as early as the 1980s. Today the group sells its products in 170 countries, employs more than 38,000 people and most recently generated sales of 12.7 billion euros.
Giovanni Ferrero, the founder’s grandson, has been running the company since 1997. The 57-year-old is regularly on the Forbes list as the richest Italian, and the Nutella, milk slices, Hanuta and Co. business has made him a billionaire.
The fortune is said to have been worth $33.5 billion in 2021. This puts the qualified marketing professional in 40th place among the richest in the world.
Ferrero lives a very secluded life, rarely appears in public, but prefers to write management literature. Under his aegis, one of the most important acquisitions in the company’s history was made in 2018: Ferrero bought Nestlé’s confectionery business in the USA.
The triggers were salmonella diseases in Great Britain and France
The trigger for the many recalls were salmonella diseases in France and Great Britain at the beginning of the week, and small children were particularly affected. Shortly thereafter, Ferrero recalled some batches of surprise eggs. The health authorities in Paris explained that it was genetically the same Salmonella that was also blamed for diseases in Great Britain and Ireland.
By working with food and health authorities in Europe, Ferrero has received new data showing a match between reported salmonella cases and its own Arlon plant, the company said.
In Europe, the EU food safety authority EFSA and the EU health authority ECDC started investigations. The two authorities had spoken of 105 confirmed salmonella cases and 29 suspected cases on Wednesday, most of them in children under the age of ten. Certain chocolate products have been identified as a likely route of infection.
“A salmonella disease manifests itself within a few days after infection with diarrhea and abdominal pain, sometimes with vomiting and a slight fever,” says the consumer advice center. In basically healthy people, the symptoms usually subside after a few days.
In certain cases, however, severe disease progression can occur, especially in infants, small children, the elderly and people with a weakened immune system.
With agency material
More: Chocolate under suspicion: EU investigates salmonella cases across Europe