The Ferrero plant in Arlon, Belgium, has been granted conditional authorisation to restart its production lines by the Belgian food safety authority (AFSCA).

Closed since the beginning of April, after Salmonella was detected in the Arlon plant, Ferrero has taken concrete actions to ensure that a situation like this does not happen again.

The reopening of our Arlon factory follows extensive cleaning and food safety controls conducted in full transparency and in close collaboration with AFSCA who have confirmed that all required food safety standards have been met. More than 1,000 Ferrero employees alongside independent specialists have been on site working continuously preparing the factory for reopening and more than 1,800 quality tests have been completed with 10,000 parts dismantled and cleaned. We have also made significant investments into the factory which includes the replacement of multiple pieces of equipment as well as the installation of 300 metres of new pipeline. We’ve also updated the product safety protocols, trainings and sampling in the plant.

“We are very pleased to have received the green light from the Belgian food safety authority. We would like to thank AFSCA for their invaluable guidance and support,” said Lapo Civiletti, Chief Executive Officer of the Ferrero Group. “We are truly sorry for what happened and would like to apologise once again to all those impacted. We have never experienced a situation like this in our 75-year history. We have taken learnings from this unfortunate event and will do everything to ensure it does not happen again.”

Philippe Steyaert, Ferrero UK and Ireland Regional Director: “Ferrero takes its responsibilities very seriously and consumer safety is of paramount importance to us. We would like to thank the food safety authorities, including the UK Food Standards Agency and the Food Safety Authority Ireland for their support and guidance. We would also like to thank our staff for their ongoing commitment throughout this process. Once more we would like to say sorry to our UK and Irish consumers. The trust our consumers place in our products is incredibly important to us all at Ferrero and we promise to do everything we can to rebuild your trust in us.”

At Ferrero, the health and safety of our consumers is of the utmost importance and we are deeply sorry about your negative experience. If you believe that you have suffered an illness from consuming one of our recalled products, and would like to file a complaint, please visit our website, and we will assess your file carefully and respond to you as soon as possible.
Thank you.