Precautionary recall for more Tiger Brands products

ALL products manufactured at the Value Added Meat Products (VAMP) Pretoria facility are being recalled by Tiger Brands‚ including the company’s Snax brand‚ as a precautionary measure.

Production at the plant will also be suspended.

“This decision was taken as a result of the detection of listeria monocytogenes at the facility‚ following heightened testing protocols which have been introduced,” Tiger Brands said.

“These results have been sent for whole genome sequencing to determine whether ST6 is present or not at the facility. The results will only become available in due course.”

This follows the suspension of operations at its Polokwane and Germiston sites earlier this month. Operations at a fourth site are also affected.

“Given the suspension of operations at the Polokwane and Germiston sites‚ the primary recipients of the production of the company’s Clayville abattoir‚ operations at the abattoir are being wound down with the objective of suspending operations completely by March 31,” the company said.

An amount of R425-million is being claimed in a class action suit against Tiger Brands and Enterprise Foods.

In addition‚ the company is facing huge financial costs – estimated to be between R337-million and R377-million – as a result of the recall and the suspension of operations at the four sites.

The company is not yet sure when operations will resume.

Meanwhile, the KwaZulu-Natal health department is awaiting a report from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases to confirm whether or not listeriosis has been detected in the Ladysmith area.

A community newspaper has reported a dairy farm and two shops had tested positive for the disease and claimed one person had died‚ with six others in hospital. – TimesLIVE