Salmonella bacteria were found in the largest chocolate factory in the world, which stopped production, according to the AFP news agency.
The Swiss company Barry Callebaut runs the factory in the Belgian town of Wieze. It makes liquid chocolate in large batches for 73 clients who make sweets.
Barry Callebaut is a Belgian-Swiss cocoa processor and chocolate manufacturing company that has an average annual production of 2.2 million tonnes of cocoa and chocolate. Hershey, Mondelez, Nestle, and Unilever are some of the big companies that buy chocolate from the plant. Barry Callebaut is the biggest company in the world that sells cocoa and chocolate.
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On June 26, Salmonella was found in a batch at the Wieze plant. Salmonella is dangerous bacteria that can cause salmonellosis, typhoid fever, and paratyphoid fever. In 1885, an American scientist named Dr. Daniel E. Salmon was the first person to find the bacteria.
Salmonella can make the person who gets it throw up, get a fever, and have stomach cramps. In the United States, bacteria are the most common reason why people get sick from food.
A spokesperson for the company, Korneel Warlop, told AFP on June 30 that all products made since the test have been stopped. He also said that Barry Callebaut is in the process of contacting all customers who may have gotten contaminated products, and that chocolate production in Wieze is still on hold until further notice.
He also said that most of the contaminated products that were found are still on the site. The Wieze plant is in Flanders, north of Brussels, to the northwest. Since June 25, all of the company’s clients have been told not to ship any goods made with chocolate made in the plant.
The Belgian agency in charge of making sure food is safe, the Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (AFSCA), has been told. The agency has started to look into the matter.
The Wieze plant does not make chocolates that are sold directly to customers, according to the report. So, the company thinks that none of the goods made by clients have yet been sent to stores.
A few weeks before this happened, Salmonella was found in chocolate made at the Ferrero factory in Arlon, which is in the southern part of Belgium. Kinder chocolates are made at the factory. Due to the risk of Salmonella, families in the UK were told to throw out any Kinder Eggs they had at home after what happened at the Ferrero factory in Arlon.
An article in Metro said that food poisoning made as many as 70 children in the UK sick. On June 17, Belgian health officials said that the Arlon chocolate factory could start up again for a three-month test period.
Salmonella samples found in the Ferrero factory were the same as those found in a different factory in Belgium last year. Also Read | Cooperative dairy model proved successful decentralized rural economy: PM Modi.
The head of the UK Health Security Agency at the time, Dame Jenny Harries, had warned that salmonella infections can be very bad and that many of the children who got sick during this outbreak were very sick and had to go to the hospital, the Metro report said.
Barry Callebaut is the best in the world when it comes to chocolate. During the 2020-2021 fiscal year, Barry Callebaut sold 2.2 million tonnes of goods each year.
The main office of Barry Callebaut is in Zunich. The Swiss group made a net profit of 402 million Swiss francs ($384.5 million) last year on sales of 7.2 million Swiss francs, according to an AFP report. Barry Callebaut has more than 13,000 employees and makes things in more than 60 places around the world.
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