Chicken looted from Durban warehouse contaminated, Ethekwini warns public

The Ethekwini Municipality has warned the public against the consumption and sale of meat and poultry from a cold storage warehouse in Hammarsdale looted during lasts week’s unrest.

In a statement released by the metro on Wednesday, it said that the meat was unsafe for consumption.

It said that the meat was not stored and transported at correct temperatures.

“The City’s Environmental Health Department inspected the facility and found that the meat products from the warehouse could potentially be unsafe to consume,” reads the statement.

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“The public is therefore advised to urgently dispose of these products in a refuse bin and to take the refuse bag out on the scheduled collection day.”

The city said that it would continue monitoring the situation and appealed to the public not to bury the contaminated food or dump it.

National Dept of Health denounces Infant Formula Donations and hommade recipes

Meanwhile, the National Department of Health has cautioned against the calls for infant formula donations and distribution on social media platforms.

In a statement released on Thursday, the department said this was an illegal act.

“The department has noted the evolving situation in some provinces especially KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng due to civil unrests,” reads the statement.

It conceded that this has led to an acute shortage of infat formula and other essential food supplies in some provinces.

“Calls for infant formula donations and distribution on social media platforms is illegal,” the department said.

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“Social media communication promoting recipes for homemade replacement infant feeds has been circulated. The department does not support the use of hommade infant formula because it can harm infants. These hommade infants formula reciepes might not contain enough or too much of nutrients and put infants at risk of getting sick and causing diarrhoea.”

It said that the national department would facilitate receipt of donated infant formula to ensure compliance to regular framework.

“Donors will then be directed to the appropriate district helth personnel for further to supporting of identified non breastfeeding mothers,” explained the statement.

The department said that this is an interim measure to mitigate the challenge at hand thus this will be reviewed in due cause as the situation normalises.