Firms must follow food safety regulations
COMPANIES who failed to adhere to South African and international food safety standards and are found culpable in the world’s largest listeriosis outbreak will be punished, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said yesterday.
“Laws are available to take people to account and they are going to be punished in terms of the available legislation,” Motsoaledi said in a debate in the National Assembly on the food-borne disease which has caused 180 deaths in the country so far.
He was responding to calls from MPs in opposition benches that companies be prosecuted for selling foods containing listeriosis.
“The fact of the matter remains that over 180 people have died as a result of these unscrupulous companies which prioritise profit even over safety of people...,” said EFF MP Elsabe Ntlangwini.
But the DA questioned what role the Health Department played in the spread of the bacteria.
“It is common knowledge that the minister has announced that the source has been traced to the Enterprise processing plant in Polokwane, and Rainbow Chicken,” said DA MP Lindy Wilson.
“While I am not here to absolve either factory for the role they have played in the loss of lives in South Africa, I question whether they are solely responsible.”
Wilson said the Enterprise and Rainbow chicken plants should have been inspected every three months, bemoaning a severe shortage of environmental health practitioners who are able to perform these inspections.
IFP MP Narend Singh said he expected the corporate entities identified as being sources of the deadly outbreak to bear the legal responsibility for their actions, and that they co-operate with authorities, and provide assistance to affected families.
“No amount of false legal poetry can absolve them form bearing prime responsibility for the deaths,” said Singh.
Enterprise polony has been found to be one of the sources of the outbreak by the Health Department. On Monday, Tiger Brands chief executive Lawrence MacDougall refused to take responsibility for the outbreak, denying any direct links between the deaths of 180 people and its products. – African News Agency (ANA)