Counterfeit Lucky Star pilchards: What Woolworths believes happened

Woolworths has broken its silence after police arrested seven people for re-packaging and altering dates on fake and expired Lucky Star canned fish in what looked like the retailer’s boxes.

The company said it had a “strong” reason to believe that the products may be part of a batch rejected for not meeting quality control standards.

“While this investigation is ongoing, we have strong reason to believe that the product in question may have formed part of an imported shipment from an international supplier that was rejected by Woolworths, as a result of it failing to meet our stringent quality control standards.”  

Woolworths investigates

Woolworths said after it rejected the product, it became the responsibility of the supplier to collect and dispose of the stock from their warehouse.

They have launched an independent investigation to determine why this process was not adhered to.

“At Woolworths, we take food safety and the wellbeing of our customers extremely seriously. It is our number one priority.”   

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Police investigation

The police are investigating a case of Contravention of the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act after they discovered workers were re-packaging and altering dates on fake and expired Lucky Star canned fish at a factory in Gauteng.

The owner of the factory situated in the south of Johannesburg remains at large.

Provincial police spokesperson Captain Tintswalo Sibeko said in addition to the confiscated products they also seized printing equipment used to alter the expiry dates.

“We would therefore like to remind our customers that Woolworths-labelled products must only be purchased at Woolworths store, or through our Woolworths online channel,” said the retail giant.  

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Food poisoning in SA  

President Cyril Ramaphosa has vowed to close down shops linked to children’s food poisoning deaths.

The country has seen many cases of children being hospitalised due to food poisoning in the last weeks.

The majority of these cases were alleged to have been caused by snacks bought at spaza shops. Thus the call by the President.

According to the president, a total of 890 incidents have been reported across the country, with Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal being the most affected, and Limpopo, Free State, and Mpumalanga also recording dozens of incidents. These include six children in Naledi, Soweto, who died last month.

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