Overnight IT incident knocks out supermarket fridges and freezers in Sweden, Belgium and Luxembourg

As of 7:57 a.m. ET, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026

Refrigeration and freezer systems at supermarkets in Sweden, Belgium and Luxembourg malfunctioned overnight into Monday, sending temperatures up and forcing some stores to throw out food. The grocers described the problem as an "incident" or an "IT incident" and said they were investigating. As of Monday morning, none of the companies had named a cause.

Ahold Delhaize and Colruyt said Monday that an IT incident overnight hit fridges and freezers in dozens of stores in Belgium and Luxembourg, Reuters reported. Swedish grocers ICA and Coop reported similar temperature spikes, with one store blaming a cyberattack, according to Reuters reporters Anna Ringstrom, Louise Rasmussen and Johan Ahlander in Stockholm and Inti Landauro in Brussels.

Belgium and Luxembourg

Cooling systems at more than 40 Delhaize supermarkets were disrupted Monday morning by an "IT incident," Belgian public broadcaster VRT reported. VRT cited RTL Info and said a Delhaize spokesperson had confirmed the report. Affected stores are in both Flanders and Wallonia, so the problem was not regional, the spokesperson said.

Delhaize sent a warning about sudden temperature rises in its cooling systems at about 4 a.m. local time, according to RTL as cited by VRT. In both refrigerated displays and freezer chests, temperatures rose as high as 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit), VRT said.

Delhaize spokesperson Sarah De Meester said the chain noticed temperature increases in its cooling systems Monday and is investigating, Reuters reported. The Delhaize spokesperson told VRT the company was looking at "how to get the stores operational again."

Carrefour Belgium said 15 of its stores were affected so far and that it was still investigating, VRT reported, citing the Belga news agency. VRT also said about five independent Spar operators had similar problems. A spokesperson for Colruyt Group, which runs Spar stores in Belgium as franchises, told Reuters that five shops' fridge systems were hit.

According to RTL, as cited by VRT, most of the affected stores were Shop & Go outlets next to Q8 fuel stations and Delhaize Proxy stores, along with some Delhaize supermarkets and motorway stores.

"It is unclear for now whether this is a cyberattack," VRT reported.

Stephan Moelans, CEO of Sabcobel, the Belgian refrigeration company that operates Delhaize's systems, told Belga it was a cyberattack that switched the units' evaporators to defrost mode, Reuters reported. Moelans' office declined to comment when Reuters contacted it. Delhaize has not given a cause.

Sweden

"We are aware that a limited number of stores were affected by an incident overnight, which impacted their refrigeration and freezer systems," an ICA spokesperson told Reuters in an email.

ICA press officer Gustaf Nilsson told Swedish public broadcaster SVT that the company was investigating. He said the affected stores are connected outside ICA's central network and that ICA was helping them deal with the incident.

One Swedish ICA store said on social media that its refrigerators and freezers had been "hacked" overnight and set to 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), Reuters reported. The store later said it had reopened. SVT reported that the ICA store in Sjöbo, in the southern province of Skåne, had to close for part of the morning. Mats Olsson, who runs the ICA store in Böda on the island of Öland, told SVT that the store's freezer was at 55 degrees Celsius when he arrived that morning.

At an ICA store in Stockholm, a notice said all of the shop's freezers were broken because of a cyberattack, Reuters reported. The store's sales manager told Reuters the problem began at 2 a.m. and was noticed at 5:30 a.m.

Coop told the Swedish daily Aftonbladet that six of its stores had been affected by similar incidents, Reuters reported. SVT said those stores are in Gästrikland and Hälsingland. Coop did not immediately respond to Reuters. According to SVT, affected stores are spread across much of Sweden, including Skåne, Öland, Värmland and Stockholm.

John Billow, head of Sweden's National Cyber Security Centre, told Reuters that the center was working on several incidents involving refrigeration systems in grocery stores around the country. "We have in recent weeks... identified that we have quite a lot of exposed operational technology devices in Sweden that we have been clear about the necessity to update or patch," Billow said.

Elsewhere

Kitman Coldtech, a technology supplier, told Estonian public broadcaster ERR that an Estonian supermarket chain was also affected, with temperatures set to 50 degrees, Reuters reported. Kitman CEO Jann Mutso declined to name the chain.

Monday's problems came weeks after an Oct. 12 incident in France. French police said last month that hackers had seized control of cooling units at hundreds of supermarkets, raising temperatures as high as 50 degrees Celsius and causing fires and food losses, Reuters reported. Reuters said authorities have not indicated who was behind the French incidents and no one has claimed responsibility. No company or authority has said Monday's incidents are connected to France.