Salmonella had hit Cadbury Plant in 2002

05/07/06 The Cadbury's chocolate factory at the centre of a food poisoning alert was infected with the same strand of salmonella four years ago, public health officials have disclosed. Salmonella food poisoning bacteria were found in Cadbury's Dairy Milk and Brazil Caramel as long ago as 2002, but the company has kept the information from the authorities until now. The Food Standards Agency revealed that records just extracted from Cadbury show that its factories suffered outbreaks of the same rare Salmonella Montevideo strain in April and November that year.

Cadbury was forced to recall seven brands of chocolate 10 days ago after admitting that in January it found salmonella contamination in the crumb, or base ingredient, that goes into their manufacture. The company delayed six months before informing the FSA of its latest problem. The same contaminated crumb was delivered into silos at two Cadbury factories that make 30 of its other brands. The authorities and Cadbury are now testing samples from stocks of the other brands and of new products for salmonella.

The independent Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food also said that there was no safe level of salmonella and described Cadbury's scientific approach as old-fashioned and "unreliable". The company, part of Cadbury Schweppes, said that it had a danger level of 10 cells of salmonella per 100g chocolate and the tests revealed the presence of only 0.3 cells per 100g. The developments will further damage the reputation of Cadbury, which JP Morgan investment bank believes could lose £25m as a result of the outbreak.

Cadbury Schweppes said Tuesday that it would not challenge the views of the UK Food Standards Agency that its testing procedure had been inadequate and said it would be improving its procedures in the light of their advice. The company said it had for the last week been working very closely with both the Food Standards Agency, or FSA, and with local Environmental Health Officers, or EHOs and it has seen the report from to the FSA commenting on its testing standards and protocol. "We do not challenge the views of the expert committee advising the FSA or the EHOs. We agree that it is the job of the FSA and EHOs to provide guidance on these matters and we welcome their advice," Cadbury said.