Barry Callebaut’s global chocolate site to restart production in August
Barry Callebaut has confirmed it intends to begin restarting its core global chocolate production facilities in Wieze, Belgium, from early next month, following detection of salmonella at the site, reports Neill Barston.
The Swiss-headquartered business noted that key progress had been made in tackling the incident, which was found on 27 June, with facilities being temporarily halted two days later in a bid to swiftly isolate the issue.
According to the company, it found that the case related to salmonella-positive lecithin ingredients present at the site. It projected that cleaning operations presently being undertaken at its location in Belgium – which are believed to be the largest of their kind in the world, will enable production to re-start in early August. There will be a phased return to full output.
The company noted that its early shut-down of its operations meant that no affected chocolate entered the retail food chain, with the business fully notifying Belgian Food Safety Authorities (the FAVV).
In a statement, the business said: “Food Safety is paramount for the Group and this is an exceptional incident. Not only does Barry Callebaut have a Food Safety charter and procedure in place, but also over 230 colleagues working on food safety and quality in Europe and over 650 worldwide. At the site in Wieze, employees are trained to recognise food safety risks. This allowed the teams to quickly identify the risk and initiate the root cause analysis.”
