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Elita Chikwati and Fadziso Mundawarara

Government has advised members of the public to be cautious when buying tinned fish, especially the Pilchards brand  imported from South Africa after the suppliers, West Point Processors, announced a recall of their 400-gramme cans last Saturday, citing a canning deficiency that may make the product unfit for human consumption.

The recall relates to cans with the batch codes starting with ZST29 and ZSC29.

A survey carried out by The Herald on Thursday indicated that most shops in Harare did not have the affected cans, but had 155-gramme and 425-gramme cans of the brand.

Acting Secretary for Health and Child Care Dr Gibson Mhlanga on Thursday said they had not received reports of tinned Pilchards being withdrawn in Zimbabwe.

“There is a system and protocol that health inspectors follow,” he said.

“This ensures the safety of imports ranging from edibles to other commodities. Our Expert Health Data System (EHDS) checks if food imports are correctly labelled and engage in a systematic process that does follow-ups on various food items to ensure the health and well-being of Zimbabweans nationwide.

“There has not been any case of the products being recalled in Zimbabwe; rather the assumptions of faulty canning could be a domestic issue for South Africa.”

Industry and Commerce Deputy Minister Raj Modi urged people to be cautious when buying the canned product.

“We are telling people to be aware of the dangers of consuming such food,” he said. “We are advising retailers that may have the affected products to withdraw them from the shelves and list them.

“We will engage our South African counterparts so that we can be able to return the contaminated cans and ensure the affected retailers can be refunded.”

Pick n Pay Joina City branch manager, Mr Daniel Moyo, said they put in place measures to ensure the safety of consumers.

Necessary precautions have to be applied when grocery shopping.

“Consumers tend to overlook aspects they find minor and these are some of the things that can either support life or cause death,” he said.

“Things such as expiry dates of commodities are some of the important details that consumers need to pay attention to.”