Egypt announces testing Kinder Surprise chocolate eggs for Salmonella after UK cases

CAIRO – 7 April 2022: Head of the Internal Trade Sector at the Ministry of Supply Abdel Moneim Khalil told press Wednesday that samples of Kinder Surprise chocolate eggs will be sent to the labs of the Ministry of Health and Population for analysis to determine if the product is contaminated with Salmonella or not.

The official noted that all shipments become subject to tests once they arrive to Egyptian ports, and that such analyses are assumed by many governmental entities. Those are the Ministry of Health and Population, the Veterinary Medicine Directorate, the Egyptian Quarantine Authority, the General Organization for Import and Export Control (GOEIC).

Khalil added that each of those bodies get samples of shipments with different serial numbers so as the results are compared against each other. Hence, if they are identical, an entry permit is issued. If not, the shipments are denied entry and returned to the exporting country.

The official further clarified that the standards differ from a country to another. For instance, the expiry duration of smoked cheese in most European countries is 12 months while it is just six months in Egypt. So when such product is imported by Egypt, Egyptian standards apply and not those of the export state.

The UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA) had recommended consumers not to eat 20g or three-pack eggs before anytime between 11 July and 7 October 2022, over a link of Salmonella cases, as reported by the BBC.

Ferrero, the manufacturer of Kinder chocolates, announced Wednesday that it is voluntarily extending the recall to Kinder Easter egg hunt kits (150g), Kinder Mini eggs (75g), Kinder schokobons (200g) and the 100g Kinder Surprise in the UK and Ireland "with best before dates between 20 April 2022 and 21 August 2022," as a precautionary measure.

All the affected and the suspicious products were produced by the same plant in Belgium.  

Similarly, Europe's health agency said that it was investigating dozens of suspected cases of salmonella – mostly children aged below 10 - linked with eating chocolate in at least nine countries including the UK, Germany, France and Belgium. However, it did not name Ferrero or any other confectioner.