Consumerwatch: The latest on listeriosis
As the listeriosis crisis continues to grip the nation, and more products are being recalled, many people have become paranoid about what they can and can’t eat.
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Understandably - we are in the throes of what is, after all, the world’s most significant listeriosis outbreak. The latest figures released by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) are 978 confirmed cases and 183 deaths.
Quite a bit has happened on the listeriosis front since we last talked listeriosis on Consumerwatch:
A class action - two in fact - has been announced and the victims are coming forward to tell their stories, many of which are truly devastating.
I am in regular contact with a Polokwane woman whose third child, born just before Christmas, has been diagnosed with hydrocephalus - fluid on the brain - caused by Listeria, which she contracted in the womb. Last week the tiny baby had a procedure to insert a second shunt to drain the fluid from her brain after the first one got blocked and her head started swelling “like a balloon”, as the mother puts it.
Read: Update expected after KZN Health receives latest listeriosis report
The parents have been told that their daughter will be developmentally slow.
The mother was a huge fan of Enterprise polony, viennas, russians, and ham, all bought from Enterprise’s factory shop, which is near the family home. She’d craved them during her pregnancy, so you can imagine how traumatised that poor woman is now.
What hasn’t changed since the source outbreak revelation by the health department on March 4 is that Tiger Brands have still not conceding that their Enterprise plant is the source of the outbreak, despite what the NICD is holding up to be solid evidence.
A few days ago, CEO Lawrence MacDougall said: “We acknowledge that we are dealing with a national crisis and want to assure the public that “in the event that a tangible link is established between our products and listeriosis illnesses or fatalities, Tiger Brands will take steps to consider and address any valid claims which may be made against it in due course.”
Meanwhile, a whole lot of polony, viennas, hams, and other cold meats have been disappearing from supermarkets. Initially, only Enterprise polony, frankfurters, and Russians were officially recalled, on March 4, along with Rainbow chicken Polony. Tiger Brands, reading public sentiment, then very quickly recalled its entire ready-to-eat range “as a precaution”.
Now you might have heard the term ST6 being bandied about - that’s the so-called “Outbreak Strain” - the very particular strain of Listeria which has been found to be responsible for more than 90% of the confirmed cases in South Africa’s outbreak.
The Rainbow polony didn’t test positive for the outbreak strain, which gave RCL - the company that owns the Rainbow brand - some relief.
But, of course, any ready-to-eat food product testing positive for any strain of Listeria remains a concern. And it’s important to remember that about 9% of the confirmed cases of listeriosis were not the outbreak strain.
Shoprite has in the past week withdrawn its own brand Farmer’s Deli red viennas after a single batch tested positive for Listeria and Enterprise has recalled its Snax range for the same reason, and stopped operations at the Pretoria plant where it was made.
Also read: First listeriosis case in Namibia
Shoprite has chosen not to name the company that makes their Farmer’s Deli range - other than to say it’s not Enterprise - until they know whether or not those viennas test positive for the outbreak strain or not.
Some weeks ago, Woolworths withdrew 33 cold meat products which were made in the affected Enterprise plants, while stressing that its recipes, processing protocols, and Listeria testing regime were unique to Woolworths.
Both the health department and the NICD have been advising consumers not to eat any cold meat at all - this while the supermarkets are still stocking brands which haven’t been recalled or withdrawn.
I have a theory about why there is so much confusion around which foods are safe and which are not in light of this listeriosis crisis.
Most South Africans aren’t familiar with the term “cold meat” - as in ready-to-eat processed meats such as polony and ham. In other words, products you don’t have to cook or heat before eating.
To most it just means meat which is cold. One newspaper reporter referred to it in a story as “cold storage meat”. She must have thought “but all meat is cold, so the NICD must mean cold storage meat”.
That may explain why some people have been rejecting Rainbow fresh chicken and frozen chicken pieces as well - which is unfortunate, because Listeria is killed by heat, so any food you cook yourself before eating is no longer a risk. There’s never been a listeriosis outbreak anywhere in the world linked to food which is cooked in the home.
As for all those people blaming imported MDM - mechanically deboned chicken, which goes into polony - or imported chicken for the listeriosis outbreak...
Here’s the thing - polony and other deli meats are cooked during the manufacturing process, so even if the raw ingredients were laced with Listeria, the bacteria would be killed in the cooking process. The contamination happens in the plant, after the product is manufactured.
Also, the ST6 strain which is behind the Listeriosis outbreak in Europe - 32 confirmed cases and six deaths so far - has been found to be different from South Africa’s outbreak strain.
As for those who say, “Well, what do you expect of processed meat - it’s been poisoning us for years”...
The Listeria which causes these outbreaks is always in the processing plants. The ingredients have nothing to do with it.
Listeriosis outbreaks have been linked to all sorts of foods, from cheese to lettuce, deli meats and pasteurised milk - even organic, non-GMO meat processing plants. Listeria doesn’t discriminate. It’s a bacteriological issue.
Remember - heat kills Listeria. So any food that you cook or heat is not going to carry a Listeria risk.
The good news is that at all food factories around the country, especially those which make ready-to-eat foods, are being tested properly.
Especially at the Tiger Brands’ facilities…
And there’s lots of talk about bringing industry, government, regulators, scientists, and civic society together to find a “sustainable national solution” for the Listeria story.
Meanwhile, the listeriosis case count continues to grow. Bill Marler - the US attorney who has dealt with hundreds of food-borne pathogen outbreaks around the world for the past 25 years - predicts that the final numbers will be 2000 cases, 400 deaths.
We’re going to be telling their stories in the months and years to come.