Woolworths South Africa has recalled it's frozen savoury rice mix product due to Listeria concerns.
The company's statement was circulated on social media and although there were serious concerns about food safety, many social media users wanted to know, "who is buying frozen rice."
To be fair I can think of many reasons to buy frozen rice, not least of which being that it's really convenient.
Why does frozen rice exist? So people actually buy this? Is frozen pap next.? Mara why.
— Bob Badu💫 (@rorixm) July 11, 2018
Who buys frozen rice mara? Aowa lena #Woolworths pic.twitter.com/mxLolqURr4
— You made a Way💕 (@Loga_cee2) July 11, 2018
Being poor has its benefits sometimes - I didn't even know there was such a thing as frozen rice, which means I've been safe from at least one dangerous food this entire time. Who freezes rice anyway? #Woolworths
— Sbonelo Hlophe (@SboneloHlophe) July 11, 2018
When you're cooking up a storm and you still have to put the pot of rice on the stove, it can be a bit of an effort. So the Woolies uncooked savoury rice definitely had its market.
The other obvious point is that there must have been quite a market for it because Woolworths was importing the product and selling it. In the statement the company confirmed: "The Woolworths product is sourced from Belgium and contains frozen sweetcorn sourced from the Greenyard Factory in Hungary."
Even the sweetcorn is outsourced. All of these logistics just for frozen rice ? #Woolworths it's actually interesting
— Masha. (@NaturallyMasha) July 11, 2018
Who on Earth buys frozen rice?? Wth? Seriously? #Woolworths
— Ruh (@RuhG81) July 11, 2018
So there were definitely people out there out there throwing bags of frozen rice into their trollies and saying thank you to the retailer for making their life easier.
Like with the ban on polony, only time will tell if people will go into mourning because Listeria has deprived them of a family favourite.
Then we will all know the answer to the question, 'who is buying frozen rice'