Listeriosis: 'No evidence of link between deaths, Tiger Brands products'

Tiger Brands, the company that owns Enterprise, has acknowledged that the Listeriosis outbreak is an urgent and serious matter.  

But it's stopped short of apologising saying there isn't proof the 180 deaths from listeriosis were directly linked to its products. 

CEO Lawrence MacDougall says while they're not refuting government's claims that their processing plant was the source of the outbreak - they haven't seen the evidence yet.

"To be clear - I have not said that there's not a link. They provided the link yesterday in their update. We have not seen evidence of that link so we've not received the details from them. I'm not refuting what they said at all, they said ST6 is linked to the outbreak of the strain and the ST6 strian has been found on our site. We have not seen that information," MacDougall said.  

READ: INFOGRAPHIC: The latest on food-borne disease, Listeriosis

Four African countries have now taken steps against cold meat imports from South Africa. Mozambique and Namibia have suspended imports of the products from SA.  

Botswana has recalled items with immediate effect - while Zambia's called on South African retail chains there - to pull affected products from local shelves.

Meanwhile - shoppers have begun returning cold meat products affected by the outbreak.