Enormous chocolate factory shuts over salmonella outbreak
The salmonella outbreak has halted production at the world’s biggest chocolate factory in Wieze, Belgium.
The Wieze plant, run by Barry Callebaut, is the biggest chocolate factory in the world, according to the government tourism website Visit Flanders.
Swiss chocolate producer said in a statement that Barry Callebaut detected a salmonella positive production lot manufactured in the chocolate factory in Wieze/Belgium.”
“All products manufactured since the test have been blocked,” the spokesman said. “Barry Callebaut is currently contacting all customers who may have received contaminated products. Chocolate production in Wieze remains suspended until further notice.”
The company said that their quality experts identified lecithin as the source of the contamination. “As lecithin is used in all chocolate production, we have taken the precautionary measure to stop all production lines and to block all products manufactured since the time of testing, while we continue the root cause analysis and risk assessment.”
As a precautionary measure, Barry Callebaut also asked all customers to block any shipped products.
“For Barry Callebaut food safety is paramount. Our robust food safety programs in place allowed us to quickly identify lecithin as the source of the contamination,” the company said in the statement, adding that Belgian food authorities (FAVV) were informed of the incident.
The fright comes a few weeks after a case of chocolates contaminated with salmonella in the Ferrero factory in southern Belgium manufacturing Kinder chocolates.
In late March 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) was notified of a cluster of cases with monophasic Salmonella Typhimurium sequence type 34 infection and the investigations linked the outbreak to chocolate produced in Belgium, which has been distributed to at least 113 countries.
Salmonellosis is a disease caused by nontyphoidal Salmonella bacteria. Salmonella infection can cause fever, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea that can be bloody within 8 to 72 hours after exposure and illness lasts 2–7 days.