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Written by All four of South Africa’s major supermarket chains have been officially named in the South African meat scandal.
The City Press has published the names of the retailers involved in the study conducted by the University of Stellenbosch and FACTS, the Food and Allergy Consulting and Testing unit.
The researchers were reluctant to name the guilty parties but the University was forced to hand over the details when Media24 made a successful access to information application which resulted in the finer details of the study being released.
The retailers who had previously denied any mislabelling of meat products suggested that the findings could be blamed on cross-contamination, where one type of meat was transferred to another on chopping boards, saws, hands and utensils.
Of 32 Shoprite and Checkers products tested, 20 were wrongly labelled.
Shoprite CEO Whitey Basson said there was no “intentional adulteration to mislead consumers”.
No butcher in his right mind would intentionally add a small percentage of lamb, which costs more per kilogramme, to a pure beef sausage, which is cheaper.
Pick n Pay food director Peter Arnold said the quantities of undeclared animal products found in the Stellenbosch study were “minute” and that there was an international threshold that meat could contain one percent of an undeclared product to allow for cross-contamination.
Arnold said the chain carefully selected their suppliers and employed 42 food technologists to test their products.
Pick n Pay has commissioned 700 independent scientific tests over the past few weeks and all had proved negative.
Spar group merchandise executive Mike Prentice said labelling needed to be “tightened up” and the industry as a whole needed to “jack itself up”.
Other retailers named include Bluff Meat Supply, 7-11 Stellenbosch, Fruit & Veg City, Food Lovers Market and OK Foods, recently acquired by Shoprite..
Bluff Meat Supply said it was not surprised by the results because “the same mincer is used to mince the different meats” and that the only way to avoid the trace amounts of previously minced products would be to have separate mincers.
Werner Grobler, the owner of Grobbies Butchery in Durban, said his business has been in existence for 45 years and they “have great integrity” towards his customers, and they would press charges if their names were mentioned in City Press.
A Trade & Industry investigation into the scandal is currently under way.
Watch the videos (top) for further details including a full interview with lead researcher Prof Louw Hoffman in the second video.
Via: City Press
Pick n Pay, Shoprite, Woolworths and Spar named in meat scandal,
