Education department says nutrition programme will temporarily not include pilchards products

The department of basic education (DBE) announced that Pilchards products will be temporarily ousted from national school nutrition menu.

“The [DBE] has suspended with immediate effect the serving of canned pilchards as part of the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) across all schools in the country,” says the department in the statement.

Moreover, canned fish is a common food item that 9.2 million schoolchildren under the NSNP consume every school day.

This drastic decision comes after the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS) ordered grocery stores in South Africa to stop selling West Point Processor’s tinned pilchards in tomato sauce and chilli sauce on Monday.

The NRCS recalled the tinned fish products owing to a deficiency in the canning process.

“Some of the cans were compromised during the sauce filling step on the production line, therefore, could affect the safety of consumers.

“The problem manifests itself after months of storage which cause the content of the can to react with the metal of the can,” the NRCS explained in a statement is has since issued.

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