[imagesource:saps]

Woolworths is diving into the murky waters of the counterfeit canned pilchards, launching its own investigation to reel in the culprits behind this fishy business, according to a statement on Saturday.

This follows from police netting seven undocumented immigrants and busting a Johannesburg facility where printing equipment was being used to “refresh” expiry dates on canned goods. The raid unearthed heaps of unlabelled pilchards being dolled up as “Lucky Star” and packed into Woolworths-branded cartons—because why settle for one premium label when you can fake two?

Authorities have since opened a case covering everything from breaking the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics, and Disinfectants Act to flouting immigration laws and handling suspected stolen goods.

Quite the shopping list of offences, which Woolworths said it had “strong reason to believe” it had not much to do with:

“Woolworths is aware of the recent SAPS investigation into the discovery of a counterfeit operation involving canned pilchards in Woolworths-branded cartons, found in a facility in Gauteng,” a spokesperson said.

“While this investigation is ongoing, we have strong reason to believe that the product in question may have formed part of an imported shipment from an international supplier that was rejected by Woolworths, as a result of it failing to meet our stringent quality control standards.”

It said the supplier should have discarded the stock straight away, and it was investigating why this was not done.

“In the event of a product being rejected, it becomes the immediate responsibility of the supplier to collect and dispose of the stock from our warehouse responsibly.

“We have launched our own investigation to determine why this process was not adhered to in this instance. At Woolworths, we take food safety and the wellbeing of our customers extremely seriously. It is our number one priority.”

Woolworths’ statement follows closely on the heels of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement of urgent measures to tackle South Africa’s food poisoning crisis—a tragedy that has already claimed the lives of 22 children.

The retailer urged customers to only purchase products with its label at its own stores or via its online channel.

Oceana Group Limited also released a statement to clear up this scandal, noting that “Lucky Star would like to rectify misleading information regarding counterfeit canned pilchards seized in Daleside, Gauteng during a SAPS raid.”

“Our investigators and third-party experts have categorically confirmed that this is not a Lucky Star product. The labels are counterfeit and we do not use ring-pull lids on our canned pilchards,” the statement notes.

“Current investigations have established that an international manufacturer produced the canned pilchards under the Woolworths brand. The retailer imported the product from Morocco and received the canned product but later rejected the consignment and asked the supplier to collect the goods. After collection, some of the consignment appears to have been intercepted and illegally relabelled as Lucky Star using fake labels.”

The statement adds that SAPS confiscated all stock and machinery.

“The SAPS raid on the perpetrators’ premises and the subsequent on-site inspection revealed an overwhelming amount of evidence, including but not limited to; label printing machines, fake labels, easy-to-open ring pull cans, other substances and paraphernalia which are completely inconsistent with the manufacture of our product and proves beyond doubt that the product seized is not of Lucky Star origin.”

Now that this is done and dusted, who knew the black market for canned pilchards was this elaborate?

[source:news24]