FERRERO PLANT IN ARLON AUTHORIZED TO RESTART PRODUCTION
The Belgian food safety authority (AFSCA) has given the authorization to reopen the production lines at the Ferrero plant in Arlon, Belgium.
Luxembourg 17 June 2022
The Ferrero plant in Arlon, Belgium, has been granted conditional authorisation to restart its production lines. This reopening follows extensive cleaning and food safety controls conducted in close collaboration with the Belgian food safety authority (AFSCA). The plant began the reopening process that will lead to the progressive restarting of the production lines over the next few weeks.
Closed since the beginning of April, after Salmonella was detected in the Arlon plant, Ferrero has taken concrete actions to ensure that a situation like this does not happen again.
More than 1,000 Ferrero employees and independent specialists have been working at the plant continuously. More than 1,800 quality tests have been completed, 10,000 parts dismantled and cleaned, and significant investments made. This includes the replacement of multiple pieces of equipment as well as the installation of 300 metres of new pipeline. We’ve also updated the product safety protocols, trainings and sampling in the plant.
This work has been done in full transparency and in close collaboration with AFSCA who have confirmed that all required food safety standards have been met. This experience will enable us to review our approach to managing this type of incident and, most importantly, will give us the opportunity to strengthen our cooperation with food authorities.
We would like to thank our staff for their ongoing commitment throughout this process.
“We are very pleased to have received the green light from the Belgian food safety authority. We would like to thank AFSCA for their invaluable guidance and support,” said Lapo Civiletti, Chief Executive Officer of the Ferrero Group. “We are truly sorry for what happened and would like to apologise once again to all those impacted. We have never experienced a situation like this in our 75-year history. We have taken learnings from this unfortunate event and will do everything to ensure it does not happen again”.
