A factory in Belgium billed as the world’s largest chocolate-making plant said it restarted operations on Monday after closing for six weeks to clean up a salmonella contamination.
Three of the 24 production lines at the plant in the town of Wieze have restarted and the first delivery has been made, said Barry Callebaut, the Swiss company that runs the factory.
The plant, which supplies industry giants such as Hershey, Nestle and Unilever but not consumers directly, was closed in late June after salmonella bacteria were found in a batch.
Zurich-based Barry Callebaut said he stopped shipments and informed customers in time to prevent contaminated chocolate from reaching stores.
Zurich-based Barry Callebaut said he stopped shipments and informed customers in time to prevent contaminated chocolate from reaching stores.
It identified lecithin, added to smooth food textures, as the source of the contamination, prompting weeks of extensive cleanup.
“We remain cautious because this operation is unprecedented, the cleaning and disinfection process takes a long time,” a spokesman for Barry Callebaut, Korneel Warlop, told AFP.
He said that while the factory was currently producing only “pretty low volume”, it planned to reactivate more production lines “in the coming weeks”.
Belgium’s food health agency said it was continuing to monitor the plant’s output.
The Barry Callebaut plant employs around 600 people and is a key unit in the company’s total production, which amounted to 2.2 million tonnes in fiscal year 2020-2021, produced at more than 60 sites worldwide. .
The company says its Wieze plant is “the world’s largest chocolate factory” and offers the prestige of being made in Belgium, which has an international reputation for high-quality chocolate.
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