On Tuesday, the National Regulatory for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS) held a media release in Court Classique Hotel, Pretoria, to order all formal wholesalers, retailer and informal traders to remove and stop selling all 400g Pilchards, canned fish, in tomato and chili sauces with immediate effect.
Food safety is a priority for NRCS and therefore the organisation is engaging all role players to ensure that the affected products are removed from the market to protect consumers against unsafe products in line with its mandate.
According to the General Manager, Meisie Katz, this follows the results of the investigation, which the organisation conducted that revealed a deficiency in the canning process.
“Some of the cans were compromised during the sauce filling step on the production line and could therefore affect the safety of consumers. The problem manifested itself after months of storage, which caused the content of the can to react with the metal of the can,” General Manager Katz said.
The findings also revealed that the product’s marking starting with ZST29 and ZSC29 on top of the cans ware affected. The NRCS further stated that only products manufactured in 2019 by West Point Processor based in Cape Town and distributed nationally to various retailers across the country were affected.
All product brands such as Shoprite, Ritebrand, Spar, U Brand and Mammas ware affected, hence NRCS wishes to implore all consumers to return them to any shop where they had purchased for a refund.
Katz further opened up when asked whether consumers can expect NRCS to deploy officials to go to informal spaza shops to investigate if they still have affected products, so that they will not continue to buy those products.
Katz answered and said that not all products in the market are affected but there are specific brands such as those that are marked ZST29 and ZSC29 only.
“The manufacture has already started the recall and the NRCS will continue to monitor the process with all the other wholesalers and retailers including the informal market to ensure that the process is handled efficiently.”
The General Manager ended the speech by reiterating that the recall that they are currently doing is to put precautionary measures in place.
“At this stage we have no food fatality or any food poisoning but because we have discovered the canning deficiency the manufacturer and regulator have taken steps to ensure that we put control in place that there is no consumer that will be a victim of food poisoning.” General Manager Katz said.
