Pilchards Lucky Star

Pilchards / Image via Adobe Stock

Bearer of more bad news: Pilchards recall still in effect after contamination

It’s not been a good week. So bad in fact, that you might have forgotten about our relatively recent contamination crisis.

Pilchards Lucky Star

Pilchards / Image via Adobe Stock

In case you were looking for some good news between load shedding, the coronavirus pandemic and the plethora of other sources of South African pain, I’m afraid to say that you still can’t buy pilchards from most retailers. 

West Point recall

In early February, West Point Processing announced that some of their pilchard products had possibly been contaminated following a “canning deficiency” issue. They quickly put the word out that anybody who had recently bought tinned pilchards should immediately take them back to the store for a refund

Hark your minds back a month and think wistfully about how inly a short time ago, this was the only major contamination issue on our minds. What a difference a month makes. 

The South African, not wishing to pile on the misery but rather to scour for a shred of good news, reached out to West Point Processing to tentatively inquire about some possible respite for tinned fish lovers. 

Unfortunately, we received more bad news. 

“Yes, the recall is still in effect,” said Jason Banger, spokesperson for West Point Processing “We experienced a canning malfunction during the sauce-filling process on only one of its canning lines.”

Banger said that there is still an advisory warning in place instructing consumers to avoid eating any of its 400g Pilchards in Tomato Sauce and 400g Pilchards in Chili Sauce products with the batch codes ZST2 9 and ZSC2 9.

Brands to avoid:

The following brands are still under recall protocol: 

  • Deep catch
  • Mammas
  • OK Housebrand
  • Prime Ocean
  • Spar
  • Sunny
  • Shoprite Ritebrand
  • Cape Point
  • Checkers Housebrand
  • U Brand
  • Saldanha
  • West Point

He said that certain brands are still safe to eat, including Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s favourite – Lucky Star. 

“All other canned pilchard products on shelf manufactured by West Point Processors, such as Saldanha Pilchards, remain safe to eat. The recall is a precautionary safety measure,” Banger said. 

Canning issue still not solved

Banger said that the issue that set off the unfortunate chain of events is still being resolved, with canning operations completely shut down until such time.

Once we became aware of the issue, we immediately acted by shutting down the affected line until we could perform the necessary checks to evaluate further. We have temporarily halted the affected canning line while working with the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS) to resolve the issue as soon as possible,” he said.

Some (sort of) good news

He said that the bulk of the compromised stock has been removed from retail networks by now.

“The good news is that the bulk of the stock that is potentially impacted has already been isolated or removed from distribution centres and retail outlets across the country (approximately 96%),” he said.

He added though, that customer safety was more important at this stage than the profits the company must have missed out on during the crisis.

“Because the recall is ongoing, we are still assessing the extent of the losses incurred by the precautionary recall.  However, customer safety is paramount to us and the philosophy ‘rather be safe than sorry’ applies.”

“Pilchards are an important and cost-effective source of protein, due to their many brain-fuelling health benefits. All other canned pilchard products on shelf manufactured by West Point Processing, such as Saldanha Pilchards, remain safe to eat.”