Cape Town - The Muslim Judicial Council’s Halaal Trust (MJCHT) has accepted the apology of Pick n Pay after the retailer launched an investigation into a possible breach of halaal standards in a local store.
Pictures of pork products stored with halaal products in a freezer in Tokai went viral on Friday. The MJCHT requested a meeting with the store’s management team to investigate exactly what had happened.
Pick n Pay general manager Jarett van Vuuren explained that an external contractor had been called in to fix the lights in the perishable chiller at the back of the store. To reach the lights, the contractor had asked one of the store’s employees to move the stock.
“Our employee moved the stock into the butchery back-up chiller to maintain the cold chain, which was a mistake,” Van Vuuren said.
He said they had been made aware of the incident and immediately removed the stock, secured it and kept it away from other stock. Pick n Pay had also assured the MJCHT that its staff would undergo training to ensure similar incidents never happened again. New and existing staff would also receive training on the handling of halaal products.