Salmonella does not grow in chocolate. The low moisture, high fat content, and presence of anthocyanins make chocolate an inhospitable environment for the pathogen. Temperature of 70-80 °C reached during milling, refining or conching and even after overheating at >100 °C were not sufficient to destroy small numbers of Salmonella.
Once introduced into the chocolate manufacturing process, contamination will be almost impossible to remove without closure of the factory and full cleaning, so the emphasis for control must be focused on eliminating Salmonella in the raw beans and subsequently preventing any cross contamination.
Salmonella infections flowing consumption of contaminated chocolate, although rare, were identified as early as the 1960s.
Salmonella contaminated chocolate has been fingered as the cause of several outbreaks of food-borne illness.
All Salmonella epidemics related to chocolate contamination were widely distributed temporally and geographically and affected large numbers of people , predominantly children.
More than 170 cases of infection with Salmonella eastbourne were reported in Canada and the USA in 1973 – 1974 after the consumption of chocolate products.
In 1982 imported Italian chocolate containing Salmonella Napoli gave rise to many cases of disease in England and Wales.
Salmonella contamination in chocolate
