The Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain in Belgium has authorized the Arlon plant owned by Ferrero in Belgium to resume production.  The plant was closed after traceback confirmed that the production facility was responsible for an outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium accounting for 450 confirmed cases among children in the E.U. in addition to four in Canada and one in the U.S.  Between December 2021 and January 2022, 10 out of 81 samples from the plant that produced the Kinder™ brand of chocolates yielded the pathogen.

Permission to resume production is provisional and will be subject to intensive surveillance of product and the environment of the plant. This case illustrates the capacity of public health authorities in the E.U and the U.S to recognize outbreaks due to a common pathogen and identify the vehicle of infection and source. This is attributed to databases including FoodNet in the U.S. and the extensive application of whole genome sequencing of isolates from patients, implicated foods and plant environments.