Category Archives: Foodborne Illness

Gov UK

Investigating an ongoing outbreak linked to certain Kinder products made by Ferrero. The majority of the cases are children under 5 years of age.

Latest

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is continuing to work with the Food Standards Agency, Food Standards Scotland, Public Health Scotland, Public Health Wales, Public Health Agency Northern Ireland – as well as international public health and food safety authorities – to investigate an ongoing outbreak of salmonella linked to certain Kinder products made in one of Ferrero’s factories, in Arlon, Belgium.

As of 20 April, there are 73 cases linked to this outbreak in the UK. The majority of the cases are children under 5 years of age.

We continue to remind people that a range of Kinder Egg products and Schoko-Bon’s should not be eaten.

Full details on the products affected and the recall can be found here.

Further information on case numbers in all affected countries can be found at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

Previous

15 April 2022

As we enter the bank holiday weekend, the Food Standards Agency (FSA), Food Standards Scotland (FSS) and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) are strongly reminding people that a range of Kinder Egg products and Schoko-Bon’s should not be eaten.

The agencies are continuing to work with Public Health Scotland, Public Health Wales, Public Health Agency Northern Ireland – as well as international public health and food safety authorities – to investigate an ongoing outbreak of salmonella linked to certain Kinder Egg product ranges and Schoko-Bons produced at one of the Ferrero company’s factories, in Arlon, Belgium.

Full details on the products affected and the recall can be found here.

As of 15 April, there are 70 cases linked to this outbreak in the UK. The majority of the cases are in children under 5 years of age.

Dame Jenny Harries, Chief Executive of UKHSA, said:

We’re reminding people of the recall this bank holiday weekend as it’s possible these products have been bought and stored as gifts, or for events such as Easter trails.

It’s crucial these products are not eaten and are discarded. Salmonella infection can be severe and many children affected in this outbreak have been very unwell and hospitalised, so anyone giving chocolate products to friends or family should take extra care to ensure their Easter gifts are not amongst those products recalled.

Thank you to parents and guardians  who worked with us and other public health authorities in the UK to tell us what their children had eaten prior to becoming unwell – this allowed us to rapidly pinpoint a potential source of infection and helped food chain investigations both in this country and in Europe. We understand this has been a worrying time for these families, and their responses have helped to prevent more children and vulnerable adults being affected.

Emily Miles, Chief Executive of the Food Standards Agency, said:

As we go into the Easter weekend, we are strongly urging consumers to follow the advice in the latest recall notice and to check any Kinder products they might have already bought against the list detailed in the notice, as they may pose a risk to health. If they do have any products on the list, they should not eat them and should discard them immediately.

We have emphasised to the business and the authorities in Belgium the importance of taking a precautionary approach to their recall and trust that they will continue to put consumers’ needs first in any action they take.

Symptoms of salmonellosis – or infection with salmonella – typically resolve themselves within a few days. However, symptoms can be more severe, especially in young children, those who are pregnant and those with weakened immune systems.

Anybody with concerns that they have symptoms of salmonellosis should contact their GP or call NHS 111. Salmonella can be spread from person to person as well as from food, so anyone affected should adhere to good hygiene practices, such as washing hands thoroughly after using the bathroom and avoiding handling food for others where possible, if you have symptoms.

The following products have been recalled and regardless of best-before date, should not be eaten.
The recall includes:

• Kinder Surprise 20g and 3x 20g
• Kinder Surprise 100g
• Kinder Egg Hunt
• Kinder Mini Eggs
• Kinder Schoko-Bons

13 April 2022

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is continuing to work with the Food Standards Agency, Food Standards Scotland, Public Health Scotland, Public Health Wales, Public Health Agency Northern Ireland – as well as international public health and food safety authorities – to investigate an ongoing outbreak of Salmonella linked to certain Kinder products produced by the Ferrero Group.

Full details on the products affected and the recall can be found here.

As of 13 April, there are 67 cases linked to this outbreak in the UK. The majority of the cases are in children under 5 years of age.

Dr Lesley Larkin, Surveillance Lead, Gastrointestinal Pathogens and Food Safety (One Health) at UKHSA, said:

We would like to thank all the parents who worked with us and other public health authorities in the UK to tell us what their children had eaten prior to becoming unwell – they allowed us to rapidly pinpoint a potential source, which facilitated food chain investigations both in this country and in Europe. We understand this has been a worrying time for these families, and their responses have helped to prevent more children being affected.

Symptoms of salmonellosis typically resolve themselves within a few days. However, symptoms can be more severe, especially in young children, those who are pregnant and those with weakened immune systems.

Anybody with concerns that they have symptoms of salmonellosis should contact their GP or call NHS 111. Salmonella can be spread from person to person as well as from food, so anyone affected should adhere to good hygiene practices, such as washing hands thoroughly after using the bathroom and avoiding handling food for others where possible, if you have symptoms.

AFSCA

04/22/2022 (Product Recall Update 04/08/2022)
Ferrero
Product Recall: Several Kinder chocolates.
Problem: Possible presence of Salmonella.

FERRERO RECALLS THAT KINDER SCHOKOBONS SHOULD NOT BE CONSUMED. REGARDLESS OF THE EXPIRY DATE , LOT NUMBER OR PACKAGING SIZE Ferrero wishes to draw attention to the possible presence, albeit small and unlikely, of Kinder Schokobons of different sizes than those usually present

on the Belgian market, because they would be imported from foreign markets. These products, also produced in the Arlon factory, should not be consumed.

Kinder Schokobons and Kinder Happy Moments, all formats combined, were withdrawn from the market on April 8th. Since then, Ferrero and the distributors have made every effort to ensure that the products withdrawn from the market no longer circulate and are no longer available for sale, under the control of the FASFC.

However, it seems that certain formats of Schokobons, usually not distributed in Belgium, are present in minute quantities on the market and this, following import practices, not controlled by Ferrero Belgium.

The full product list is below.

We advise consumers who have purchased the products concerned by the recall, not to consume them and to return them to the store where they purchased them in order to be reimbursed. He can also contact Ferrero’s consumer service for any questions on this subject or to obtain a refund at the following address Consumer.Service.benelux@ferrero.com or on the number 0800 21042 .

We reassure our consumers that all other products in the Kinder range are perfectly safe to eat: Kinder Bueno, Kinder Chocolat, Kinder Maxi, Kinder Country, Kinder Cards, Kinder Joy, Kinder Tranche au Lait, Kinder Pingui, Kinder Choco Fresh and Kinder Délice can be consumed with confidence.

We would like to thank the distributors and the authorities for their collaboration. We take food safety very seriously and all actions we take are guided by our commitment to consumers.

Salute

Brand : Ferrero Kinder
Name : Maxi Mix rabbit plush containing Kinder Schoko Bons
Reason for reporting : Recall due to microbiological risk
Publication date : 22 April 2022

• Ferrero Kinder recall model – Maxi Mix rabbit plush containing Kinder Schoko Bons

Salute

Brand : FERRERO KINDER
Name : KINDER HAPPY MOMENTS MINIMIX
Reason for reporting : Recall due to microbiological risk
Publication date : 22 April 2022

Documentation

• Callback model FERRERO KINDER – KINDER HAPPY MOMENTS MINIMIX

Salute

Brand : FERRERO
Name : FERRERO MAXI MIX 133 GR
Reason for reporting : Other reason for revocation
Publication date : 22 April 2022

• Callback model FERRERO – FERRERO MAXI MIX 133 GR

Salute

Brand : Ferrero Kinder
Name : Maxi Mix rabbit plush containing Kinder Schoko Bons
Reason for reporting : Recall due to microbiological risk
Publication date : 22 April 2022

• Ferrero Kinder recall model – Maxi Mix rabbit plush containing Kinder Schoko Bons

Sante Publique

Update on 04/20/22 following the recall of several Kinder range products manufactured in a factory in Belgium due to suspected contamination by  Salmonella Typhimurium .

Eurosurveillance

Following the UK’s notification on the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) EpiPulse Food and Waterborne Diseases (FWD) platform on 17 February 2022, and an Early Warning and Response System (EWRS) alert on 25 March, Germany, Sweden, France, the Netherlands and subsequently Luxembourg, Norway, Ireland, Belgium and Spain reported confirmed or probable cases in their respective countries.

Case definitionThe agreed European Union (EU) case definition for confirmed cases was laboratory-confirmed monophasic S. Typhimurium with symptom onset on or after 1 October 2021 and belonging to the same five SNP single linkage cluster by SNP typing or cases who clustered within five allelic differences of another confirmed outbreak strain by core genome multilocus sequence typing (cgMLST) analysis or shared the same HC5_296366 by the EnteroBase HierCC scheme [1]. This definition therefore depended on the whole genome sequencing (WGS) methodology used at the national level in each country (i.e SNP typing or cgMLST analysis). Probable cases were those with laboratory confirmation of monophasic S. Typhimurium with symptom onset on or after 1 October 2021 and phenotypic antimicrobial resistance (AMR) results consistent with the outbreak strain or a multilocus variable number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) profile 3–11–14-NA-0211.

Detected cases in the EU/EEA and United KingdomBy 10 April 2022, a total of 150 confirmed and probable cases were identified across nine EU/European Economic Area (EEA) countries and the UK, with case sampling dates ranging from 21 December 2021 (the first UK case) to 28 March 2022 (Figure 1). Descriptive epidemiological investigations demonstrated cases ranged in age from 8 months to 56 years, but were predominately under the age of 10 years (n = 134; 89%) and disproportionately female (n = 99; 66%) (Figure 2). The hospitalisation rate was 42% of cases for whom information was available (116 cases with 49 hospitalised) – higher than that usually reported in salmonellosis outbreaks [2] and for individual cases of infection with S. Typhimurium [3]. While this is probably also influenced by the demographic characteristics of those affected, this is a possible indicator of increased clinical severity of infection in this outbreak.

Figure 1.Distribution of confirmed and probable salmonellosis outbreak cases by week and country and by date of onset^a,b, EU/EEA and UK, up to 10 April 2022 (n = 150)

EEA: European Economic Area; EU: European Union; UK: United Kingdom.

^a Case onset date (n=108) is not consistently available for all reported cases, therefore date of sampling has been used where case onset date is unavailable (n=39) or date of receipt at reference laboratory where both onset and sampling dates are unknown (n=3).

^b Probable cases were reported by Belgium (n=19) and Germany (n=2) (data as of 13 April).

Figure 2.Distribution of confirmed and probable salmonellosis outbreak cases, by age group and sex, EU/EEA and UK, up to 10 April 2022 (n = 150)

EEA: European Economic Area; EU: European Union; UK: United Kingdom.

Multi-country collaboration through teleconferences and sharing of information between public health agencies and reference laboratories indicated that cases in affected countries commonly reported consumption of a specific brand of chocolate products. Overall, of 101 case interviews carried out across the 10 affected countries, 88 cases (87%) confirmed consumption of these products. The most commonly consumed product was Product A, marketed primarily for children in the age group 3–10 years, but multiple other product types were also reported.