Ireland Recalls Pistachio Chocolate with Kataifi Filling Over Salmonella

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) published a recall notice on September 29 for a milk chocolate and pistachio bar with crunchy kataifi filling, Dubai style, in a 100-gram format. The reason is the presence of Salmonella. The recall covers all best-before dates of the product, so it is not limited to a specific batch.

The FSAI said retailers must remove the product from shelves and display recall notices at the point of sale, and that distributors must notify their customers. Consumers are asked not to eat it. According to the specialized press, the notice adds to a recall of the same type of product in the United Kingdom, published a few days earlier, which indicates that the problem affects more than one market.

Salmonella can cause diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps, with symptoms typically appearing 12 to 36 hours after consumption and lasting four to seven days. In small children, older adults and immunocompromised people it can lead to severe illness. Chocolate is a special case: its low water activity does not allow the bacterium to multiply, but it protects it and allows it to survive for months, and a very low dose can be enough to cause illness.

For TAAG, the episode points to low-moisture ingredients as the critical point. In bars with pistachio paste and kataifi dough filling, contamination usually enters through raw nuts, pastes or cereals that do not go through a pathogen elimination stage before being mixed with the chocolate. Verifying suppliers and testing for Salmonella batch by batch in filling ingredients and finished product helps contain a recall that, like this one, crosses borders.