Everything You Need To Know About The Kinder Surprise Egg Recall

With Easter just around the corner, the last piece of news parents want to hear is that there's a recall involving chocolate eggs that could have been contaminated by salmonella bacteria — but that's exactly what parents in Europe are facing today. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) says it is monitoring an outbreak spotted across seven EU countries and in the United Kingdom, which has sickened 134 — mostly children under the age of 10 — a large number of whom were hospitalized. "The outbreak is characterized by an unusually high proportion of children being hospitalized, some with severe clinical symptoms such as bloody diarrhea," the ECDC said in a statement.

In an email to Politico, EU spokesperson Stefan De Keersmaecker confirmed there was a recall in progress, saying, "Withdrawal and recall of suspected batches are ongoing" and that "epidemiological and analytical evidence points to an establishment producing chocolate products in Arlon (Belgium)," which is the site of a Ferrero facility, maker of Kinder Surprise chocolate eggs as well as other products (via Brussels Times). 

Where EU officials have refrained from naming Ferrero in the recall, the U.K.'s Food Standards Agency has been less circumspect, according to Politico, saying it had instructed the company to pull back stocks of Kinder Surprise eggs made in Belgium. Reuters also indicates that the problem lies with Kinder Surprise chocolate eggs, which its maker, Italian-based chocolatier Ferrero, has begun withdrawing from supermarket shelves in both the United Kingdom and in Ireland. The Food Standards Agency further specified that the questionable Kinder Surprise eggs had "best before" dates of between July 11 and October 7, 2022. According to Reuters, Britain has seen the highest number of cases of salmonella poisoning, with 63 cases so far.

In Ireland, the head of the Food Safety Authority (FSAI), Pamela Byrne, told parents it was time to be vigilant. "Given that we are approaching Easter, we would urge parents and guardians to check at home if they have any of the products and if they do, to ensure that any are not eaten," she said (via Irish Examiner).