After reaching out to all customers supplied with impacted chocolate products, Barry Callebaut can confirm, based on its internal investigation, that no affected chocolate products by the salmonella-positive production lot in Wieze, Belgium, entered the retail food chain. The Group has shared its internal investigation with the Belgian Food Safety Authorities (FAVV) for assessment.

Quick and decisive action protected consumers from health risks

On Monday June 27, Barry Callebaut detected a salmonella positive production lot manufactured in Wieze, Belgium. The Group’s robust food safety programmes in place allowed it to quickly identify lecithin as the source of the contamination, an ingredient widely used in chocolate production. Barry Callebaut informed the FAVV about the incident, stopped all chocolate production lines as a precautionary measure and put a hold on all products manufactured since the time of testing.

Food Safety is paramount for the Group and this is a very exceptional incident. Not only does Barry Callebaut have a Food Safety charter and procedure in place, but also over 230 colleagues working on food safety and quality in Europe and over 650 worldwide. At the site in Wieze, employees are trained to recognize food safety risks. This allowed the teams to quickly identify the risk and initiate the root cause analysis.

The chocolate production in Wieze will remain suspended until further notice. Barry Callebaut is diligently pursuing its very thorough root cause analysis and keeping the FAVV informed in the process. When the analyses are completed the lines will be cleaned and disinfected before the production process resumes.