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Cape Town - The Shoprite Group on Friday confirmed that it was recalling a batch of Farmer's Deli red viennas after being notified of the presence of listeria monocytogenes in initial testing of a single batch.
A Winelands District environmental health practitioner earlier in the day confirmed the presence of the listeria monocytogenes in the viennas that were packed for the group, the supermarket said in a statement.
"Further testing is necessary to confirm the presence of harmful levels of listeria bacteria. The results of the further testing will take another five working days.
"In the meantime, the Shoprite Group has, as an added precautionary measure removed all Farmer’s Deli red and smoked viennas from its shelves until the product gets the all clear."
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Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi earlier this month announced that the ST6 listeria strain, believed to be the cause of the outbreak and deaths, had been traced to Tiger Brands' Enterprise chilled meat factory in Polokwane.
Preliminary results showed that several ready-to-eat processed meat products from the Enterprise facility located in Germiston also contained listeria monocytogenes, but the sequence type was not known.
Shoprite explained that the Listeria monocytogenes detected was not the same as listeria ST6, linked by the Department of Health to the fatal listeriosis cases.
The recall due to listeria monocytogenes was only found in a single batch (BB 18 March B5/N) and was not linked to the recent listeria ST6 recall, related to Enterprise Foods.
"The production facility, where this batch was packed has provided a full record of clean food safety tests, which included testing for the presence of listeria bacteria."
Shoprite said customers could return their 500g and 1kg vienna purchases for a full refund, even without proof of purchase.
"The group has a team of food scientists and technologists and is working with its suppliers and the Department of Health to do all that is necessary to further contain the outbreak of listeriosis."
