Tiger Brands facing a food producer’s worst nightmare
Class actions, damage to reputation and closure of factories for extended periods are among the enormous challenges
Another day, another scandal. Tiger Brands put the Dangote Flour Mills disaster behind it just over two years ago but now the company is being plunged into another crisis and this could cost it well over R1bn. Facing a food producer’s worst nightmare, Tiger has conceded that processed meat products produced by its Enterprise Foods division have been the source of the deadly ST6 strain of the listeria monocytogenes pathogen. The American Society for Microbiology describes listeriosis as a "rare but severe disease". Close to 1,000 hapless SA consumers have found this out the hard way. The official listeriosis death toll stands at 183 while, according to the website Listeria Class Action, there have been 978 cases recorded since January 2017. This makes it the worst outbreak of listeriosis in world history. It is not the first time Tiger has been forced to recall a product. In October 2014 it recalled 17,000 items in its Tastic instant rice range following the discovery of potentially ...
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