Health Dept confirms source of listeriosis outbreak
The country's biggest food retailers are pulling products believed to be linked to food-borne disease, listeriosis following Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi's announcement that the source of the outbreak has been found.
During a press briefing at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases earlier today, Motsoaledi said the source of the listeria was traced to a food production factory in Polokwane.
"We can now conclude scientifically that the source of the present outbreak is the Enterprise food production facility located in Polokwane. Additionally, preliminary results show that several ready-to-eat meat products from an Enterprise located in Germiston contain listeria monocytogenes - the sequence type however is not known. That was confirmed by midnight," Motsoaledi said.
The Health Minister says polony was positively identified as containing the bacteria, adding that this may have cross-contaminated other processed food products such as russians, viennas, Frankfurters and other ‘cold meat’ products.
1/2: We advise members of the public to avoid all processed meat products that r sold as ready-to-eat. While we know that polony is definitely implicated, there's a risk of cross-contamination of other ready-to-eat processed meat products, either @ production, distribution/retail pic.twitter.com/thCuxjGnT1
— Department of Health (@HealthZA) March 4, 2018
Supermarkets, Pick n Pay and the Shoprite Group have issued statements saying they are immediately withdrawing all products from the manufacturing sites identified by the department.
We are removing products that may be linked to the listeriosis outbreak from our stores. Customers who bought any Enterprise product (incl Bokkie, Renown, Lifestyle, Mieliekip), or any Rainbow ready-to-eat products eg. Polony or Russians can return the product for a full refund.
— Pick n Pay (@PicknPay) March 4, 2018
Listeriosis has claimed some 180 lives since January, last year.
Pregnant women, newborn babies, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems are at risk of contracting the disease.
Members of the public have again been urged to to avoid all processed meat products -that require no further cooking or preparation.
As seen below, some of the country's supermarkets have cleared their shelves to get rid of products linked to the deadly outbreak.
