Update

GEORGE NEWS - To prevent the spread of listeriosis, environmental health practitioners of Eden District Municipality are continuing to monitor retailers to ensure that no suspected Enterprise products remain on shop shelves.

According to a statement by the municipality, its practitioners are ensuring safe disposal and incineration of the products and will keep up with inspections at food premises to ensure hygienic conditions and practices prevail. Listeriosis prevention education is also taking place.

Recall of Snax products
In addition to its Enterprise range, Tiger Brands has issued a precautionary recall of all Snax branded products last week.

Their distribution partner, Clover, will facilitate the recall process.

Following the closure of its Polokwane and Germiston factories, Tiger Brands instituted a recall of all Snax products that are manufactured at its Pretoria plant last week. The company said in a media statement that this plant has also been closed and tests are being run to establish the specific strain of listeria detected here.

Tiger Brands said independent laboratory testing results confirmed the presence of listeria "in the environment" at its Polokwane plant. There was a positive detection of listeria ST6 (LST6) on the outer casing of two samples. "Whether this presence of LST6 can be said to have caused any illness or death remains unclear and testing is an ongoing process likely to take time."

The CEO, Lawrence MacDougall, said, "We are investing all our time and energy into not only understanding the cause of the LST6 detection, but also how it could have come into our facility.

Local and international experts are helping us put measures in place to prevent this from happening again in any of our meat processing facilities."

Return of products
Shoppers can return affected Snax products to retailers for a full refund without a till slip. Clover will be responsible for the collection and safe removal of products from stores and will also manage safe destruction of recalled products at a registered incinerator.