The Ferrero factory in Arlon, Belgium, already hit by a salmonellosis contamination of Kinder chocolate last year, was forced to partially halt production after the same bacteria was found in the “walls and plinth” of the facility in late June, it said on Thursday. company, reports AFP.

A representative of the Italian food giant from the Benelux countries, Laurence Evrard, who contacted AFP, explained that after the opening, cleaning of the nearby production lines was planned “for the next two weeks”.

This was compounded by a “maintenance” operation that has brought “all production” to a halt for the time being, another company spokesman said in the evening.

“But the factory is not closed,” Evrard added, and the employees’ salaries are “100% covered.”

In a press release published on its website on July 6, Ferrero announced that “part of the production lines” had been temporarily halted since last week following the discovery of salmonella during “enhanced checks” carried out by its teams.

The group presented this production suspension as a “precautionary measure”, saying that “no final product has produced a positive result”.

In April 2022, Ferrero was already forced to stop production at Arlon and, above all, to recall all the products produced there after dozens of cases of salmonellosis were reported in several European countries, probably linked to the consumption of its chocolate products.

Salmonellosis causes symptoms similar to those of gastroenteritis, sometimes acute: diarrhea and abdominal cramps, mild fever and even vomiting. There were no casualties.

Under the watchful eye of the Belgian health authorities, the Arlon plant was finally given the green light to resume normal operations in September.

Before resuming operations, the Italian giant had to carry out major cleaning operations and invest in new pipelines, as well as carry out hundreds of quality checks.

Suspected of a slow response to a problem discovered back in December 2021, Ferrero has become the subject of legal investigations in Belgium and France.

The Arlon factory in the Belgian Ardennes is important for the group, known worldwide for its brands Kinder and Nutella.