South African packaged food distributor Tiger Brands Ltd. said March 5 that it is recalling some of its meat products after South Africa's National Department of Health traced a listeriosis outbreak to one of the company's factories.
Tiger said it is recalling its Enterprise-branded ready-to-eat chilled processed meat range, effective immediately. Tiger said it has contacted all its customers to confirm that the recalled products are removed from store shelves and that it will continue working with authorities to ensure a speedy recall of the products, which include sausages and frankfurters.
Tiger also said it has suspended operations at its Enterprise manufacturing facilities in Polokwane and Germiston and halted supply to trade. The company said it is deep-cleaning its facilities using oxy-acid and spray sanitizers. It also said it is switching the method it uses to apply sell-by codes on products from stamping to ink jet printing to prevent the possibility of punctures in packaging.
In its own March 4 statement, the South African Department of Health said it had performed testing on food samples and that it had determined that the Enterprise Polokwane factory is the source of the current listeriosis outbreak
The Department of Health said 180 people had died from the outbreak as of March 2. It said the outbreak has a 27% case fatality rate.
