This “Kinder Surprise” is not so good
It is a well-known fact that a food crisis is a bad experience for everyone. When two or more people get the same illness from the same contaminated food or drink, the fact is called a foodborne disease outbreak. A 2022 example is the Ferrero case, which is one of the most popular chocolate companies worldwide.
More specifically, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) announced a suspected link between salmonella cases related to chocolate consumption in European countries. The ECDC stated that the outbreak of Salmonella affects seven EU countries and Britain, stressing, also, that the epidemic has affected the children more and it can cause severe clinical symptoms, including bloody diarrhea. Although, there are no reports of disease in the United States.
That is, Ferrero initially recalled “Kinder Surprise ‘’ chocolate eggs in Britain and Ireland, saying it was for precautionary reasons. Therefore, the company voluntarily extended recalls to these products in the before-mentioned countries between 20 April 2022 and 21 August 2022 because they characterized the issue as “extremely serious.” Also, Ferrero is voluntarily recalling products in the United States due to the fact that reported cases of salmonella in Europe were manufactured at the same facility.
In particular, the Kinder eggs that were suspected to contain salmonella were all made in Belgium and have dates between 11 July 2022 and 7 October 2022. The Kinder Surprise batches involved are 20 gram packs and three x 20 gram egg packs.
The first case was reported in Britain on January 7. Additionally, as of 5th of April, 134 cases had been identified. All the recorded cases so far are under 18 years old, with the overwhelming 60% concerning children under 5 years old and most of them are girls. At least nine patients associated with the epidemic have been hospitalized, but no deaths have been reported. At the same time, the corresponding greek entity in charge of Food Consumption “EFET” (ΕΦΕΤ in greek), announced that Kinder products are being recalled from the market and called on the citizens not to consume if they have them. “EFET” carries out relevant audits and monitors the development of the issue in cooperation with the European Commission.
As for the company’s behavior, it is noticed a lack of communication. This issue should be taken into deeper consideration given that the company did not post an official statement at the beginning of this scandal, but only after the ECDC’s and EFET’s recalls. In particular, Belgian consumer organization Test-Aankoop/Test-Achats states that Ferrero did not react decisively enough: “It seems that Ferrero wanted to keep the matter quiet as much as possible: on the one hand by a too modest recall, on the other hand by not reporting the problem to the FAVV (in Dutch/ it means Federal Food Safety Agency), nor making it public”, the organization explains in a press release. Some countries have independently made announcements, such as the German Ferrero: “Although none of our children’s products that we have launched have tested positive for salmonella and we have not received any consumer complaints, we take the matter very seriously”.
Ferrero’s global spokeswoman Laurence Evrard said: “We have followed all procedures. Our protocols have been externally validated and certified. We continue to investigate why people have become ill” & “Since we discovered the problem, we have increased the number of checks. We check more than officially required. Since January we have already carried out 2,000 checks. We do not find any salmonella in our factory or in our products.”, assuring that the production is now safe.
Furthermore, Kinder Bueno appeared on Greek Instagram as a sponsored ad, promoting the pleasure that Kinder products are offering, despite the given disruption which had already outbreaked. However, on the platform of Tik Tok, the users uploaded videos with the deteriorating products of Kinder, which began to go viral. These facts confirm the company’s lack of expected communication.
To sum up, every company will have a tough time passing through a crisis. It is important to identify that crisis early and make an effort to improve the situation and minimize the challenge every time. Food crises, such as this case of Kinder, should be taken into account and solved immediately, because the consequences for the consumers could be devastating. Hence, it is vital to control the process of the product’s development and be extra careful to identify any problems.
by ADream Team: Maria Patinioti, Marikelly Laskou, Mirto Theodosopoulou, leonidas lepidas
Betty Tsakarestou, Mania Xenou
Sources:
https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease-outbreak-news/item/2022-DON369
https://www.newsweek.com/alleged-kinder-salmonella-crisis-now-sweeping-europe-after-recall-1695585
