The U.K. Food Standards Agency is investigating why it took so long for the company to report the contamination but Cadbury maintains that they were not trying to hide anything.
On June 23, Cadbury announced it would recall seven varieties of chocolate in the U.K. The company spokesperson Andraea Dawson-Sheperd reportedly said that only 0.3 cells of salmonella were found in 100 grams of chocolate. She said an alert requires at least 10 cells.
According to reports, cases of a rare strain of salmonella were popping up in the U.K. Officials were able to link the outbreak to chocolate since most of the patients were children.
Only 14 cases reportedly occurred last year. But in the last four months about 50 cases were reported. FSA said it is unclear whether the outbreak is linked to Cadbury's contamination.
