Production has been suspended in the Neuhaus chocolate factory in Belgium after a chocolate supplier detected salmonella in raw materials received and used by the company.

"We were alerted [of salmonella] too late... Some of the potentially contaminated chocolate has already been used in production. Therefore, we had to destroy the already made products and suspend the work of the factory," Neuhaus CEO Ignace Van Doorselaere was quoted as saying on Saturday by the Belgian LN24 broadcaster.

According to Van Doorselaere, production is expected to resume in the factory in early August, after necessary measures are taken.

The world's biggest chocolate plant, run by Swiss Barry Callebaut in Wieze, Belgium, also stopped its production after finding salmonella contaminations on Thursday. 

These concerns come a few weeks after a case of salmonella-contaminated chocolate was discovered in the Ferrero factory in Arlon in southern Belgium manufacturing Kinder chocolates.    

On June 17, Belgian health authorities said that they had given Barry Callebaut a three-month test period.

The giant supplies chocolate and cocoa products to many firms in the food industry, including industry giants such as Mondelez, Hershey, Nestle, and Unilever.

It is the world's number one in the field and its annual sales amounted to 2.2 million tonnes during the 2020-2021 financial year.