More than 3,000 tonnes of Kinder products have been withdrawn from the European market following salmonella fears, leaving a dent of tens of millions of euros in the Ferrero company's accounts.
Nicolas Neykov, the head of Ferrero France, told Le Parisien on Thursday the contamination came "from a filtre located in a vat for dairy butter" at a factory in Belgium.
He added the contamination could have been caused by humans or raw materials.
Chocolate products made at the factory in Arlon, south-eastern Belgium, were found to contain salmonella, resulting in 150 cases in nine European countries.
Eighty-one of these were in France, mainly affecting children under 10 years old.
🔵 EXCLUSIF | Nicolas Neykov, directeur général France de Ferrero qui fabrique les Kinder, s'exprime pour la première fois depuis le scandale https://t.co/srN99iYVMl
— Le Parisien (@le_Parisien) May 26, 2022
Easter blow
The factory's closure and the health concerns were blows to its owner, Italian confectionery giant Ferrero, coming at the height of the Easter holiday season when its Kinder chocolates are sought-after in European supermarkets.
Neykov said: "This crisis is heartbreaking. It's the biggest removal of products in the last 20 years."
But the company hopes to start up the factory again, with 50 percent of health and safety inspections to be carried out by an approved "external laboratory" in the future, instead of the previous system of only internal reviews.
"We have asked for a reopening from 13 June to relaunch production as soon as possible," he added.
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