Scientists have described the investigations performed and control measures taken in relation to a multi-country Salmonella outbreak traced to Ferrero chocolate in 2022. In February 2022, the United Kingdom detected a monophasic Salmonella Typhimurium cluster of patients based on whole genome sequencing (WGS). Several other countries reported cases in the cluster.
Epidemiological, microbiological, and traceability investigations pointed toward Ferrero in Belgium. A total of 456 cases, belonging to two genetically different WGS clusters, in 14 countries of the European Union, the UK, Switzerland, Canada and the United States were linked to the outbreak, between December 2021 and June 2022. In total, 128 people were sick in the UK and 121 in France.
The U.S. and Canada had one case each.
Almost 90 percent of the patients were younger than 10 years old. Overall, 61 percent were females and the hospitalization rate was 38 percent. A total of 211 people reported consumption of various types of Kinder chocolate produced by Ferrero in the seven days prior to disease onset.
Chocolate eggs, marketed for children, were consumed by 168 patients. Likely contamination before December According to a study published in BMC Infectious Diseases , the long shelf life of 225 to 270 days for implicated products increased the risk of a prolonged and widespread outbreak. Investigations by the Belgian food agency revealed routine samples of raw materials, intermediate, semi-finished and finished pr.