Industry didn’t cooperate – govt

BLAME GAME: ‘WE ARE NOT INCOMPETENT’

Producers of cold meats did not bring samples as requested, says health department spokesperson.

Government yesterday blamed a lack of cooperation by producers of cold meats for a delay in finding the cause of a listeria outbreak that has killed 180 people in the past year.

Shares in food firms Tiger Brands and RCL Foods tumbled yesterday over their links to the outbreak that began in January 2017. Shoppers, nervous about what they had eaten, queued up to return processed meat items.

The government, which has been criticised for taking too long to find the source of the disease, on Sunday linked the outbreak to meat product polony made by Tiger unit Enterprise Food. It also said it was investigating an RCL plant.

Both firms, which have said they are fully cooperating with the authorities, suspended processed meat production at their plants after health authorities ordered a recall of cold meats associated with the outbreak from outlets at home and abroad.

South Africa’s health department said the source of the outbreak was found after pre-school children fell ill from eating polony products traced to processed meat producers.

“The meat processing industry was not cooperating for months. They did not bring the samples as requested.

“We had long suspected that listeria can be found in these products,” the department’s communications director, Popo Maja, told Reuters.

“It is not that we are incompetent, or that we have inadequate resources,” he said, without naming any companies.

He said all firms in the industry were being examined.

South Africa’s processed meat market grew about 8% in 2017 to a retail value of R4.9 billion, according to Euromonitor International.

Tiger Brands has a 35.7% market share, followed by Eskort Bacon Co-Operative with 21.8%. Rhodes Food, RCL Foods and Astral Foods each have less than 5%.

Tiger Brands, RCL Foods and Astral said they would comment on the health department’s comments shortly.

Rhodes said it produced processed canned meat, which it said was more regulated and different from the cold processed meat manufactured by its rivals.

Both Rhodes and Astral said their products were safe.

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said on Sunday the outbreak had been traced to a Tiger Brands factory in the northern city of Polokwane.

The authorities have not said when they could conclude tests on RCL Foods, which has a plant under investigation. – Reuters