The boss of Ferrero France apologizes for the first time after the scandal of Kinder chocolates contaminated with salmonella. In the newspaper Le Parisien/Today in Francepublished Friday, May 27, it provides “to be sorry” and promises compensation. “This mea culpa is crisis management that is too late and makes fun of the world”reacts on franceinfo Karine Jacquemart, director of the Foodwatch association who filed a complaint with the health center of the Paris prosecutor’s office.
>> Withdrawals of Kinder chocolates: we summarize the salmonellosis case in which Ferrero is suspected of having reacted too late
For the consumer association, compensation is not enough. “He says that what happened is not acceptable, what is not at all is that it is the first time that he speaks when it is the end of May”insists Karine Jacquemart.
The director of the NGO recalls that Ferrero admitted to having found salmonella on December 15, 2021 in its factory in Arlon in Belgium, the place where Kinder chocolates are manufactured. “They were then alerted by the German and then English authorities at the end of March” while the chocolates were taken off the shelves in April. During these withdrawals, “Easter and Christmas products were found”denounces the association. “What has happened in the Arlon factory since December 15? Why were the health authorities not informed in Belgium and in other countries?”wonders about franceinfo Karine Jacquemart for whom no answer has been provided.
“That they give transparency yes, but that they render accounts, that’s enough! He finally talks about compensating families when there is a complaint. The compensation will be done by justice.”
Karine Jacquemart, director of the Foodwatch associationat franceinfo
An opinion shared by Me François Lafforgue. Foodwatch’s lawyer is also representing two families of victims. “One of them had her daughter hospitalized in pediatric intensive care. We are not in an anecdotal problem, there have been hundreds of cases of contamination in Europe, including 81 in France”underlines the lawyer. “The time has come for the courts, the time for explanations and the time for the criminal investigation”he explains to franceinfo.
Asked in Le Parisien/Today in FranceFerrero’s Managing Director France confirms that his teams are already in contact “with dozens of families” for compensation. A figure confirmed by Ferrero to franceinfo Thursday, May 26. The group also specifies that it has requested the reopening of the Belgian factory in Arlon, from which the contaminated Kinder came out, for June 13. The Belgian health authorities have not yet communicated their response. The protocols will be reviewed there, with now an external laboratory which will carry out half of the health tests. A device also applied to the factory located near Rouen, in Normandy.