The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Turkey launched comprehensive checks against salmonella in all imported products of surprise egg maker Kinder after reports of salmonella cases in Europe. The ministry and Ferrero Turkey, which imports chocolate-covered plastic eggs, had earlier announced that there was no risk in imports from Europe so far but the products would be subject to tight inspection.
According to a document dated April 15 and made public on Tuesday, the ministry ordered its branches in charge of inspecting food imports to run analyses for salmonella for all products related to Kinder eggs, regardless of their source of import or factories they are produced in. Earlier, Ferrero Turkey, the importer of surprise eggs, had made a statement that only one model of eggs, Surprise Maxi, was imported from the Belgian plant of the company where the salmonella cases originated from and eggs currently on sale in the Turkish market were not manufactured at the dates related to salmonella cases but they would recall the eggs produced in Belgium as a measure. The ministry had issued a similar statement, saying that no imports from the batch of surprise eggs contaminated with salmonella were made to Turkey.
Earlier this month, nine European countries reported a total of 150 salmonella cases thought to be linked to a Kinder chocolate factory in Belgium that has since been closed. "Most cases are children under 10 years of age, with many being hospitalized," the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the European Food Safety Authority said in a statement last week. Italian confectionery giant Ferrero has apologized for the outbreak at the height of the Easter holiday season.
Symptoms of salmonella include diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting and fever. While most cases resolve within a few days, symptoms can be severe and lead to hospital admission, especially in the very young and those with weakened immune systems.
European health officials investigating the outbreak suspect it is due to bad buttermilk in the Belgian factory.
In an assessment of the continuing outbreak, experts at the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control and the European Food Safety Authority said they had matched the same salmonella strain currently infecting people to samples taken from a factory in Belgium last December.
Officials said "the processing step involving buttermilk" was identified by the company as the point of contamination for two products, chocolate eggs that normally have a surprise toy inside and bite-sized praline chocolates. Before the Belgian factory was shut down, however, European officials noted it had exported "the implicated chocolate products" across Europe and globally.
Ferrero began recalling chocolate eggs and other products in Britain, France, Germany, Italy and elsewhere weeks ago. Most recently, the company expanded its recall to the United States, acknowledging that some of the goods on sale were made in the tainted Belgian factory.
