Listeriosis outbreak over, says minister

HEALTH Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has officially declared the listeriosis outbreak over. The minister gave a full health update yesterday.

“Today’s announcement means that ready-to-eat meat can now safely be consumed, as before the outbreak. This does not mean that people will no longer suffer from listeriosis,” Motsoaledi said.

The outbreak led to more than 203 deaths. The majority were caused by the ST6 strain of listeria‚ which was found in Tiger Brands Polokwane’s processed meat factory. Earlier this year the department instructed that all ready-to-eat processed meat products produced at these facilities be recalled.

Almost 900 environmental health practitioners in every health district in South Africa have been re-trained in factory inspections, food safety systems and the testing of factories for listeria.

The department, metropolitan and district municipalities and the listeria Incident Management group have inspected all processed meat factories in South Africa.

The teams identified 157 facilities that produce ready-to-eat meat, and conducted food and environmental testing for listeria. Of 157 facilities, 51 were in Gauteng, 46 in Western Cape and 15 in KwaZulu-Natal.

“The Department of Environmental Affairs reports that 5812 tons of affected foodstuffs have been recalled and destroyed since the beginning of March.

“This process of destruction will be completed by the end of September,” Motsoaledi said.

He added that because no cases of listeriosis caused by the outbreak strain had been identified since the first week of June, and that over the last two months the incidence rate of laboratory-confirmed listeriosis cases had dropped to pre-outbreak levels, the outbreak was therefore over.

About 157 factories that made processed meat had been inspected by the World Health Organisation’s health inspectors and environmental health inspectors.

The reputation of Tiger Brands took a knock – earlier this month the company’s share price collapsed by 10%, shedding about R6.2billion of its market capitalisation.