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Tiger Brands has withdrawn 3500 tonnes of ready-to-eat cold meat products nationwide.
This followed the announcement by Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi that a strain of listeriosis was found at the company’s Enterprise facility in Polokwane.
Tiger Brands spokesperson Nevashnee Naicker said: “We have taken immediate precautionary actions and have withdrawn all ready-to-eat chilled processed meat products.
"In placing the consumer at the core of our focus, we have erred on the side of caution and have taken a larger-scale recall than required.”
Tiger Brands said it wanted South Africans to know it was handling the matter with “the utmost urgency and seriousness”.
The company had called on its customers to return all Enterprise, Mieliekip, Bokkie and Renown products that have been flagged as a potential threat and request a full refund at retail stores.
This would be done with or without a till slip and whether or not the products had been opened.
“Our distribution partner is managing the collection of all stock from stores across the country, and will be managing the safe disposal of all returned products, in line with the regulations and guidelines,” said Naicker.
The products had been removed from retail stores and were kept in a quarantine warehouse to be disposed by incineration.
According to News24 the company had stopped production and supply and staff at its factories are conducting deep cleaning.
Tiger Brands had conducted its own tests on the source of the listeriosis outbreak and said it would not confirm the source of the outbreak comes from their facilities until its own results were released.
Rainbow Chicken Limited (RCL) also recalled its Rainbow polony after receiving a safety recall notice.
At his press briefing of the outbreak source Motsoaledi also announced that RCL Foods’ polony products tested positive for listeria monocytogenes, different to the ST6 sequence responsible for the outbreak.
The health department was also investigating the RCL Foods polony production facility in Wolwehoek and was waiting for a report to confirm the results.
- Additional reporting by News24
