Coronavirus
Staff at Haribo factory in Yorkshire sent home after COVID-19 outbreak
In a statement, a Haribo spokesperson said: "We can confirm that 10 individuals at our Pontefract site have tested positive for Covid-19.
"PHE [Public Health England] has been notified and they have confirmed that the processes, controls and measures that we have in place are more than satisfactory.
"Each individual and those who have been in close contact are now self-isolating.
"As a business, we have consistently gone above and beyond the guidance set by the government and follow strict internal standards around the health, safety and wellbeing of our colleagues, which is our top priority.
"In addition to stringent hygiene measures that are already in place throughout our organisation, we operate our own internal track and trace system, strict social distancing measures are in place, everyone who can work from home is doing so and all colleagues and all visitors have their temperature checked before accessing our sites.
"We continue to enforce robust measures throughout our business."
The company, which currently employs almost 400 workers at its Pontefract site and more than 200 at the neighbouring Castleford site, announced in September it is planning to shed more than 200 jobs from its UK workforce under new plans that would see production of its popular Maoam sweets move to Germany.
Latest government figures reveal that all five districts of West Yorkshire in the north of England have seen an increase of new cases of Covid-19 in the past seven days with nearby Leeds the worst-affected part of the county, with a rate of 398.7 new cases per 100,000 people. Kirklees, Wakefield and Calderdale have also seen significant rises.
