Lucky Star says the canned pilchards seized at a factory in the south of Johannesburg during a police raid last week are fake. Pictures: SAPS/ Supplied
Oceana Group, which owns the Lucky Star tinned fish brand, said the canned pilchards seized from a Johannesburg factory during a police bust of a massive fake and expired “Lucky Star” pilchards re-labelling operation do not belong to the company.
In a statement on Tuesday, the group said investigators and third-party experts had confirmed the cans were counterfeit and used an opening mechanism that does not match Lucky Star products.
“The labels are counterfeit, and we do not use ring-pull lids on our canned pilchards,” it said.
The re-labelled cans were packed in boxes marked “Woolworths Food”.
The Citizen reported last week that police arrested seven undocumented immigrants during a raid on 11 November at the Daleside factory where workers were re-labelling and altering dates on fake and expired “Lucky Star” canned fish.
The suspects relabelled expired 2021/22 pilchard cans with counterfeit 2026 dates.
Provincial police spokesperson Captain Tintswalo Sibeko said authorities seized a large quantity of counterfeit Lucky Star pilchards and printing equipment used to alter the expiry dates.
Oceana said that during an onsite inspection, evidence, including label printing machines, ring-pull cans, and other substances and paraphernalia that are inconsistent with the manufacture of Lucky Star, were found.
The investigations have established that an international manufacturer produced the canned pilchards under the Woolworths brand, according to Oceana.
“The retailer imported the product from Morocco and received them, but later rejected the consignment and asked the supplier to collect it.
“After collection, some of the consignment appears to have been intercepted and illegally re-labelled as Lucky Star using fake labels and repacked into the Woolworths-labelled cartons.”
Oceana advised consumers to identify counterfeit goods by checking the label for print clarity and smudging, whether the label is misaligned and not properly stuck to the can, and the ink-jetted “best before” date on the end of the can.
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Over the weekend, Woolworths released a statement saying it was aware of the police investigation.
“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,” the retailer said.
Woolworths explained that in the event of a product being rejected, it becomes the immediate responsibility of the supplier to collect and responsibly dispose of the stock from the Woolworths warehouse.
“We have launched our own investigation to determine why this process was not adhered to in this instance,” Woolworths said.
“We would like to remind our customers that Woolworths-labelled products must only be purchased at Woolworths stores or through our Woolworths online channel,” the retail giant advised.
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