Tiger Brands might be a slow-sinking ship, but they are making sure they are not the only ones going down.

It was only when the listeriosis crisis hit Woolworths, that the threat of the potentially lethal bacteria got real for those who live for their Woolies branded cold meats. Many were quick to come to the retailer’s defence, commenting that Woolworths’ factory was separate to the Enterprise meat factory in Polokwane that made the listeria-infected polony.

With those comments in mind, many continued to munch on their favourite salami sticks and other products. Alas, you’re going to have to stop.

Although Woolworths fired back, with a spokesperson saying their “ready-to-eat products are sliced and packed in a dedicated production facility within Enterprise Polokwane and Germiston plants”, and that “the high-risk food production area which is managed through very strict health and safety measures”, Tiger Brands has a different version of the story.

This, from Times LIVE:

Tiger Brands spokesperson Nevashnee Naicker says while Woolworths helped the company develop the best-practice food safety procedures and protocols in its factory‚ there wasn’t one standard for Woolworths products and a lesser one for all the others.

“There are no dedicated production facilities for Woolworths‚” she said. “The facilities‚ production areas and the processing lines are common‚ and the same standards underpin everything that is manufactured at the Enterprise Foods factories‚ regardless of how they are branded.”

Boom.

But even after that, Woolworths is still sticking to its “different” story:

“Once our products are produced in the common low-risk area‚ they then follow a different stream‚ according to our hygiene protocol‚ to gain access to the high-risk area that is a segregated and controlled environment for slicing and packaging.

“This is the fundamental difference between Woolworths products and the ‘polony bombs’ which have been implicated in the Listeria outbreak.”

So, in essence, Woolworths’ products are made in the same factory as Enterprise. Can both brands accept some responsibility so we can move on?

[source:timeslive]