Fresh cases of children affected in a salmonella outbreak spread through Kinder chocolate eggs have been revealed as one mum said her three-year-old daughter looked “dead behind her eyes” after she was infected.
Charlotte Wingfield, believed to be from Dorset in the UK, said her daughter Brooklyn-Mai was seriously ill after becoming the latest victim of the suspected food poisoning from the children’s treat.
She had assumed that it was a tummy bug when her temperature shot up to 39 degrees Celsius and she became extremely sleepy.
Her daughter then seemed to rally, but in her latest posting she confirmed that she had taken ill again, saying: “Another horrid 24 hours with this sh*tty salmonella… We thought she was slowly perking up yesterday so we took grandma & grandad to lunch. Had a fantastic Easter egg hunt with grandma in the garden too then we got home & she went funny on us again. She was in an extreme amount of pain so we ended up back on the phone & then to the hospital this morning.”
Confectionary giant Ferrero has recalled several of its Kinder chocolate products — including Surprise eggs — in a move related to how buttermilk was processed at the plant, which is located in the southern Belgian town of Arlon, in the Wallonia region.
The plant has now been shut down. The EU’s European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
(ECDC) announced on Tuesday, 12th April, that Salmonella was discovered in a buttermilk tank during the factory operator’s own checks in December 2021.
It was also revealed that, after the UK, several other countries had issued product recalls and warnings, and now Austria has revealed that six cases have been recorded there since January.
Five are reported to be children, with one aged just three and another four aged up to six.
One adult in the Alpine country is also reported to be infected after eating Ferrero chocolate products.
The new cases – being investigated by health and food safety agency officials in Austria – are said to have occurred over the last three months.
They now join a list of infections and concerns potentially related to Kinder and Ferrero products in the UK, the US and other European countries.
Austria’s Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) has revealed that between January and March, six people were infected with the same strain of salmonella.
The AGES said that tests had already been conducted on five of the six cases after it was asked by the Austrian Ministry of Health to investigate.
By Friday last week, in a joint assessment of the outbreak, the ECDC and the EU food safety authority, EFSA, said that a total of 119 confirmed and 31 suspected cases had been registered in a total of 10 European countries. Austria is now the 11th European country to report cases.
The confectionery manufacturer Ferrero also recalled numerous products in New Zealand due to the possible risk of salmonella.
The Food Safety Authority on Tuesday ordered all children’s products made in Belgium to be withdrawn from the market in New Zealand.
And Ferrero voluntarily recalled some of its Kinder chocolate products in parts of the USA last Thursday.
Germany also followed suit after the UK first recalled batches of Kinder Surprise eggs over the possible presence of salmonella after 63 people showed symptoms of poisoning.
The first cases were reported in the UK, but new cases were then reported in Germany, France and Sweden, as well as other European countries, now including Austria.
Ferrero, at the bequest of the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), asked its American consumers on Tuesday, 12th April, to dump some of its Kinder products, warning that they could come from a batch that has been recalled in Europe over possible Salmonella contamination.
It also said it was working with the FDA.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced on Monday that Ferrero was also recalling some Kinder products over Salmonella fears.
The outbreak is believed to have become a financial and reputational catastrophe for Ferrero so close to Easter.
