Update: Multi-country Salmonella outbreak linked to chocolate products

EFSA and ECDC have updated their assessment, published in April 2022, of the multi-country outbreak of monophasic Salmonella Typhimurium infections linked to chocolate products by a company in its Belgian plant.

Cases, which have now started to decrease, stood at 324 (including both probable and confirmed) in the EU/EEA and the UK, as of 18 May 2022. They have been reported in twelve EU/EEA countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden), the UK, Switzerland, Canada, and USA. The first patient was reported in the UK on 7 January, with a sampling date of 21 December 2021.

On 8 April 2022, the food safety authority in Belgium stopped the production at the facility. Withdrawals and recalls have been implemented in the countries where chocolate products manufactured at the Belgian plant were distributed. Public warnings have been issued by the competent national authorities in different countries.