Tiger Brands rushes to shore up trust after food recall

One of the Tastic Simply Delicious Cook-in-Sauces

Image: Tastic's Facebook page

Tiger Brands (TBS) said on Thursday it was recalling its range of Tastic Simply Delicious sauces and ready-to-eat rices after some of these products tested positive for traces of banned carcinogenic colourants‚ including industrial dye Sudan 1.

Amanda Rogaly‚ MD of food label verification company FoodSure‚ said on Thursday this was the worst news of the harmful "Sudan" dye being found in food products in SA since an investigation in 2005 found it in various products on retailer shelves.

The biggest concern and question that arose was "how they are working to close these operational gaps so that these things don't happen again".

Consumer trust "has been completely eroded" after this and other reports‚ including a recent study showing retailers and suppliers had incorrectly labelled meat products.

Affected products

Tiger Brands said it had found Methyl Yellow and Sudan 1 colourants in seven of 20 brands in its Simply Delicious range‚ which is supplied by an Indian company. It is recalling 17‚000 packs across the entire range.

Tiger Brands started regular precautionary testing for harmful colourants after the 2005 scandal in the sector.

This was the first time it had picked up these banned colourants‚ said Tiger Brands managing executive Naresh Singh. "Most" packs under the affected ranges had been recalled‚ though Tiger Brands was in the process of recalling the 13 other products "to avoid any confusion with our consumers".

Tiger Brands imports all of its rice products from countries including India and Thailand. "We do test every batch that we bring in‚ and this is the first time we've picked up anything that's been positive.

"We are in discussions with the supplier"‚ which is majority-owned by an American firm. "They are obviously concerned about it and are following up with their suppliers about where this could potentially come from."

The affected products‚ which were produced in June and July‚ were placed on shelves "very recently". Tiger Brands is urging consumers who had already bought these products to return them and get refunded.

The Indian supplier also supplied Tiger Brands with "a small amount of raw rice from another facility"‚ Singh said.

"The bulk of our parboiled range‚ which is not affected‚ comes from a different country."

Rosalind Lake‚ a director at law firm Norton Rose Fulbright‚ said the National Consumer Commission was required to be involved with product recalls‚ even if they were voluntary.

The first priority was to get these products off shelves and refund consumers.

Potential for lawsuits

Should a consumer show they were harmed by consuming defective products‚ "they would have a claim in terms of the Consumer Protection Act for any loss or damage caused"‚ Lake said. While unlikely‚ there was also potential for a class action lawsuit.

Meanwhile‚ Rogaly said food companies "need to be aware of the fact that consumers are asking questions now". Incidents such as these damaged efforts to build brand reputations.

Rogaly said she expected that many consumers would not be aware of the issue as they did not follow the news‚ while many others would not fully understand the seriousness of the health concerns related to these dyes. The result would be that some of the products would not be returned.

South Africans were catching on to the "consumer activism" trend prevalent in the US‚ Rogaly said.

Source: BDpro via I-Net Bridge