Hershey recalls Salmonella affected Products, Shuts Plant

In cooperation with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFAI), Hershey Canada Inc. on Tuesday issued a voluntary recall of several popular brands of chocolate chips, bars and candy manufactured over the last month due to fears of salmonella contamination at its Smiths Falls, Ontario factory.

A variety of Hershey chocolate products and candies including Oh Henry! bars, Reese Peanut Butter Cups, Glosettes, chocolate chips and Cherry Blossom sweets were among the affected products. All the items that have date codes ranging from 6417 to 6455 on the back of their packages comes under the recall.

Customer should check codes on chocolate bars they purchase as not every product in stores are affected.

However, no illnesses associated with consumption of these items have been reported, but the company is concerned about the possibilities of salmonella contamination at the chocolate plant, and warning people not to consume those affected 25 different products.

“Product quality and safety are top priorities at Hershey,” said Eric Lent, General Manager, Hershey Canada. “We are working in close cooperation with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to quickly retrieve the product in question from our customers and to ensure that consumers who may have purchased this product are aware of the potential health concern.”

According to company spokeswoman Stephanie Moritz, the contamination exposed as part of a routine inspection. "During one of our manufacturing quality checks at the Smiths Falls plant, we identified an externally sourced ingredient that tested positive for salmonella. We took the precautionary step of shutting down production and contacting [the Canadian Food Inspection Agency] while we conducted further tests."

CFIA officials said they were told by Hershey Canada Inc., the fully owned subsidiary of The Hershey Company, it does not appear there was a widespread delivery of the affected products, which were made between Oct. 15 and Nov. 10, to stores.

The move does not include Halloween or Christmas candies distributed in Canadian stores as those products are made at a different time of the year.

"The majority of the product is still in their distribution system, in their warehouses and at their facility. There has been a limited amount of product that has been released," a CFIA spokesman Garfield Balsom said in an interview.

The Smiths Falls chocolate factory, which employs 500 people, is the largest employer in the eastern Ontario town of 9,000, dubbed the "chocolate capital of Canada." The plant that produces 45,000 kilograms of chocolate a year has been closed since Nov. 9 with no signs of when it will reopen.

"Our goal is to re-open the factory as soon as we're confident that the issue has been addressed," said Hershey spokesman Stephanie Moritz.