Hundreds of thousands of top selling Pilchards in tomato sauce and pilchards in chili sauce cans have been recalled from shopping centre shelves across the country.
According to the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications all formal wholesalers, retailers and informal traders have ordered to remove and stop selling the products with immediate effect.
The announcement, which dominated headlines in the last two days, was made following the outcome of the investigation which the organisation conducted that revealed a deficiency in the canning process.
The regulator said some of the cans were comprised during the sauce filling step on the production line therefore could affect the safety of consumers.
“The problem manifests itself after months of storage which cause the content of the can to react with the metal of the can. The affected products were manufactured in 2019 by West Point Processors based in Cape Town and have been distributed nationally to various retailers across the country,” the regulator said.
The products further bear the markings starting with – ZST29 and ZSC29 on top
of the can for easy identification.
Below are the details of the product brands affected and the NRCS wishes to implore all consumers to return the products to any shop where they were purchased for a refund:
- Deep Catch
- Mammas
- Prime Ocean
- Spar
- Sunny
- Shoprite Ritebrand
- Cape Point
- Checkers Housebrand
- U Brand
- Saldanha
- West Point
“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,” the regulator said.
Furthermore, the manufacturer 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 Mercury