More pilchards cans recalled

Public health regulator steps in

The National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS) yesterday said more pilchard products than initially announced were affected by a “canning deficiency”.

On Sunday‚ manufacturer West Point Processors called on consumers of tomato sauce-flavoured pilchards in 400g cans to return them for a refund. The company said affected brands were Shoprite‚ Checkers and OK.

West Point Processors, which is based at St Helena Bay in Western Cape, cited a “canning deficiency” which may cause the products to be unfit for human consumption as the reason for the recall.

The company said it was working on identifying the cause of the deficiency and that the affected cans had been isolated in its factory.

The 400g cans can be identified using batch codes starting with ZST2 and ZSC2, the manufacturer has revealed.

The regulator said on Monday they were manufactured in 2019 by the Cape Town-based company.

By Monday night‚ NRCS announced that more brands were affected by the recall‚ including chilli sauce-flavoured pilchards.

The NRCS asked retailers and wholesalers to remove the affected cans from their shelves.

“We are engaging all role players to ensure that the affected products are removed from the market to protect consumers against unsafe products‚ in line with our mandate‚” it said in a statement. Here’s a full list of brands

● that have been recalled:

Deep Catch Mammas

Prime Ocean

Spar

Sunny Shoprite Ritebrand Cape Point Checkers Housebrand U Brand Saldanha

West Point OK Housebrand