ENVIRONMENTAL Health Offices will be visiting shops across the Kouga region this week to ensure they have taken certain brands of pilchards off their shelves.
This follows the national recall of 400g Pilchards in Tomato Sauce and 400g Pilchards in Chilli Sauce, manufactured in 2019 by West Point Processors in Cape Town.
Kouga Community Services Portfolio Councillor, Daniel Benson, said the following brands of the product had been recalled by the National Regular for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS): Cape Point, Checkers housebrand, Deep Catch, Mammas, OK housebrand, Prime Ocean, Saldanha, Shoprite Ritebrand, Spar, Sunny, Ubrand and West Point.
“The products further bear the markings starting with ‘ZST29’ and ‘ZSC29’ on top of the can for easy identification,” he said.
According to a statement from the NRCS, the products were recalled after an investigation revealed a deficiency in the canning process.
“Some of the cans were compromised during the sauce-filling step on the production line, and could therefore affect the safety of consumers.
“The problem manifests itself after months of storage, which causes the content of the can to react with the metal of the can,” the statement reads.
The NRCS regulates the manufacture, production and treatment of canned fish and fishery products as part of the Compulsory Specifications (VC8014).
All canned fish and fishery products that are manufactured in the Republic of South Africa are inspected and released by NRCS for trade according to regulatory protocols.
For technical queries, please speak to Meisie Katz on 0 21 526 3401 / 084 427 0467.
Should anyone see the recalled products for sale, please inform the shop owner. If they refuse to remove them, please report this to the Kouga Call Centre at 042 200 2200.
