Shoprite recalls red viennas after tests

SHOPRITE Group have recalled a batch of Farmer’s Deli red viennas packed for the group from its perishable departments.

This follows a notification earlier yesterday from a Winelands District environmental health practitioner after the presence of the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes was identified in an initial testing of a single batch of red viennas.

Shoprite said further testing was necessary to confirm the presence of harmful levels of listeria, which would take another five working days.

As an added precautionary measure, Shoprite has removed all Farmer’s Deli red and smoked viennas from its shelves until the products get the all-clear.

According to Shoprite, Listeria monocytogenes is not the same as Listeria ST6, which was linked by the Department of Health to fatal listeriosis cases that occurred in South Africa.

Shoprite said the recall due to Listeria monocytogenes was based on a single batch and was not linked to the recent Listeria ST6 recall related to Enterprise Foods.

“The production facility where this batch was packed has provided a full record of clean food safety tests which included testing for the presence of listeria bacteria,” it said.

“The Shoprite Group has invited any concerned customers to return purchases of any Farmer’s Deli 500g and 1kg red and smoked vienna products for a full refund. Proof of purchase will not be required.”

Shoprite said it had a team of food scientists and technologists and was working with its suppliers and the Department of Health to do all that was necessary to further contain any further outbreak.

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has criticised Rainbow Chicken and the Shoprite Group for “misleading the public” with misinformation.

Speaking to the Weekend Argus last night, Motsoaledi said he had met Rainbow Chicken on Thursday. He said the company told him it had been cleared by a laboratory in France, but he insisted they were not cleared of listeriosis.

Motsoaledi said he had warned them that “you know very well that the French laboratory has not cleared you”.

“I also told them to go to their factory and remove all the listeria.”

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) had conducted a whole genome sequencing, which uncovered 19 strains of listeria bacteria in the country, Motsoaledi said.

The strains are categorised into “sequence types ( ST)”: ST- 6, ST- 204, ST- 803, among others.

“That’s the only difference,” he said. “It does not mean it’s not serious if it’s not ST-6.”

The ST-6 strain has affected more people than other strains, claiming 183 lives.

“Rainbow Chicken Limited issued its statement in such a way that when you read it, if you don’t know, you’ll feel like if they’ve got no listeria and that there is no problem. We still don’t have their ST-6 results (from their cold meat),” Motsoaledi said.

“The NICD did what they call whole genome sequencing, which is a genetic fingerprinting. It goes into the DNA of Listeria monocytogenes and (studies) what you’ve got in the shops, what you’ve got in the patient and what you’ve got in the factory and whether they’re the same thing.”

The Weekend Argus read Shoprite’s statement to Motsoaledi, who said: “The statement is not wrong but it’s misleading... because whether listeria is ST-6 or ST-204, it is still listeria. The difference is that ST-6, which was found in Polokwane, was found in many more people”.

“They’re trying to confuse people,” he said. “If they’re saying they got (the information) from a practitioner, it cannot be true. The only authentic result can either come from the NICD or the National Health Department, and not any other (source).”

“The story ( Shoprite) is telling you (about) where they got their results from doesn’t sound very authentic to me because that’s not how the procedures work,” Motsoaledi said.

He explained that like HIV, listeria has several strains.

“The companies are taking it as if when you don’t have the other strain, you’re cleared. They’re being deliberate for the sake of their businesses. They know all these things, but for the sake of their businesses, they’re trying to manipulate the public with this information. And I think it’s grossly unfair, especially Rainbow Chicken Limited.

RCL Foods said in a statement that no trace of listeria had been found in the Free State polony facility of its subsidiary, Rainbow Enterprise.