Update – Tiger Brands amplify testing for #Listeria
Enterprise manufacturing facilities in Germiston and Polokwane halt supply to trade following the announcement by Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi that #listeriosis was traced to their facilities.
Tiger Brands has stated that it has sufficient protocols in place to deal with listeriosis and has done all it can to fight the disease.
“We are all extremely concerned by listeriosis – we all want to find the source or sources of listeriosis, together with government,” said Lawrence MacDougall, chief executive officer for Tiger Brands.
“As a company that prioritises the health and safety of consumers above all else, we are committed to ensuring that all Enterprise products, as identified, will be recalled as part of the directive received.
“We are working very closely with the officials at present to conduct the process and will provide updates to the public on this matter.
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“The company proactively amplified its testing for listeria and can confirm that we had found a low detection of a strain of listeria in some products on February 14 but the presence of the ST6 strain has not been confirmed by our tests.
“The company has furthermore sent its samples to an external laboratory to test for the strain itself and should receive the results tomorrow.
“We have been actively engaging the Department of Health and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) on our findings and have openly collaborated with the DoH and the NICD on these findings and the actions taken to date to actively address our findings.
“We await confirmation of the strain testing to confirm the strain.
“In the meantime, we reaffirm our commitment to recall the identified Enterprise products as soon as possible.”
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The death toll from the outbreak stands at 180, with 22 confirmed cases in Ekurhuleni.
The company, however, stated during a press conference that it is not aware of any direct link between the fatalities and its products.
Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi announced on Sunday that two of Tiger Brands’ Enterprise factories had produced contaminated products, one of which was in Germiston and the other in Polokwane.
Both Enterprise manufacturing facilities have since halted supply to trade following the announcement.
Watch – Lawrence MacDougall speaks about the outbreak – video by SABC Digital News:
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