CAPE Town – Tiger Brands, one of South Africa's biggest food manufacturer, is recalling certain KOO and Hugo’s canned vegetable products produced from May 1, 2019 to May 5 this year.
Tiger Brands Corporate Communications Director, Werna Oberholzer said that was due to “an extremely small number” of defective cans supplied by a packaging supplier.
Tiger Brands has estimated the number of cans forming part of the withdrawal to be about 20 million cans, about 9% of annual canned goods production.
Oberholzer said the cans may have a defective side seam weld that could cause the can to leak, and that the company identified the issue as part of its internal quality assurance processes.
She said the issue was first identified as part of routine quality control procedures.
"Investigations identified a deficiency in the side seam weld of cans manufactured by a third-party supplier," Oberholzer said.
She said no health issues have been reported to date relating to the affected product range. However, despite the low probability of illness and injury, matters of quality and food safety are an absolute priority for Tiger Brands.
"Therefore, the company in consultation with the National Consumer Council made the decision to initiate a precautionary withdrawal in the best interest of consumers," she said.
Oberholzer said Tiger Brands has been working with its retail and wholesale customers to remove all affected canned vegetable products from store shelves and replace them with fresh stock produced from quality assured cans.
She said the company encourages consumers to check their food shelves at home and to return any canned products forming part of this recall to their nearest supermarket or wholesale outlet for a refund.
"KOO canned products forming part of the recall produced from 1 May 2019 to 5 May 2021 can be identified by looking at the manufacturing date code stamped on the bottom or the top of the can."
"The manufacturing date appears in the first line following the letters MAN," she said.