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Global blow: Does salmonella in chocolate come from cocoa? - Walla! Food

2022-04-27T05:58:47.441Z


Taking down Strauss chocolate from the shelves, and before that of Kinder chocolate, are related to each other? Is the source of salmonella in cocoa at all? Enter to read >>


Global blow: Does salmonella in chocolate come from cocoa?

Is the outbreak of salmonella in Strauss chocolate products related to the outbreaks of Kinder chocolate, since the beginning of the month, and the origin of both, is it at all from cocoa?

Walla!

Food

27/04/2022

Wednesday, 27 April 2022, 08:50 Updated: 08:52

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Cocoa tree, where does the infection come from (Photo: ShutterStock)

The chocolate salmon storm is relatively recent in Israel, with the latest and most dramatic eruption at the Strauss plant, but in the last three months, more than 150 cases of salmonella poisoning have been detected across Europe, linked to Kinder chocolate products, mostly among children under 10. Health experts attributed the eruption Spoiled milk in a factory in Belgium, and many products have fallen off the shelves, here in Israel as well.



Already in early April it was reported on overseas sites that the European Food Safety Authority and the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention, have begun investigating a multi-state salmonella outbreak related to chocolate products.



As consumers, we often think that food poisoning from the salmonella bacterium can come, as any pregnant woman can recite, uncooked meat, or fish, cheeses with mold, leftover food, or closed salads.

Concerned neo-hippies and their global warming, i'll tell ya.

However, the outbreak of salmonella in chocolate is not common, but it has happened quite a few times throughout history, in Europe and North America, as the theconversation website reviews.

More on Walla!

No longer just a suspicion: Strauss has updated that the salmonella bacterium is also found in finished products

To the full article

Does the outbreak come from the way cocoa is treated? (Photo: ShutterStock)

So how does salmonella get into chocolate?

Chocolate begins its life as an agricultural product in fact - cocoa.

Much of the cocoa in the world comes from small farms in West Africa.

The cocoa beans are harvested, fermented and dried on these farms.

In this process, beans have many opportunities to become infected with salmonella, whether from animals or the environment.



"According to evidence, what is currently happening with chocolate comes from the cocoa growers industry, the way they handle the raw material, at all levels," says Umina Kedmi, a graduate of the Institute of Integrated Nutrition, who specializes in superfoods.



When the beans arrive at the chocolate factory, they are light.

And that's supposed to kill all the salmonella on them.

But if salmonella is present on the raw beans it may be a source of infection.

It is therefore important that the raw beans are well separated from the beans that have been roasted, to prevent cross-contamination.



In addition to this separation, chocolate factories must be well maintained and risk control mechanisms installed.

An eruption at a chocolate factory in the UK in 2006, for example, was eventually linked to water leaks from pipes into the chocolate.

chocolate Factory.

Must be well maintained (Photo: ShutterStock)

Chocolate - a fertile pillow for spreading bacteria

But even when chocolate is produced according to the precautionary rules, and in appropriate techniques for food safety, it has built-in properties that make it have great potential for bacterial spread.



Salmonella may not grow in chocolate (because it does not have enough water), but it does survive in chocolate very well.

Chocolate may even protect the salmonella during passage in the intestines.



This means that a large number of chocolate products contaminated with salmonella may remain dangerous for a long time and even be distributed, with the same contamination, over a large geographical area.

This explains why chocolate-related outbreaks can affect large numbers of people in a number of countries.



Another important point is that the biggest consumers of chocolate are children.

Children are also more susceptible to serious infections, so in such an outbreak, the numbers may be disproportionate.

chocolate.

Has built-in features (Photo: ShutterStock)

what can we do?

Most candy manufacturers operate under strict guidelines to ensure the quality and safety of their products.

Good production processes and well-established food safety guidelines to ensure the chocolate is safe.



Manufacturers will prefer to eliminate pathogens (disease-causing microorganisms) like salmonella in chocolate, or at least detect it during production.



However, the recall in Kinder's story and the current one in Strauss, prove that the damage control system works, but it happens too late in the process.

For us consumers, when a recall message comes out, the advice should be taken seriously and the consumption of the products should be avoided.

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  • Strauss

Source: walla

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