The National Consumer Commissioner (NCC) has advised the public not to consume the Deli Hummus range of products after a preliminary report on the product recall by Shoprite Checkers pointed to areas of concern regarding product handling at the manufacturing level.
The NCC said the supermarket chain informed it on 16 September of the recall of the Deli Hummus range manufactured by BM Foods (a member of Sea Harvest Group), following the detection of Listeria Monocytogenes which is a species of foodborne bacteria.
The Commission said after the product recall notification, and in line with Section 60 of the Consumer Protection Act, Shoprite Checkers has now provided it with an interim investigation report.
"The preliminary findings of the report point to some areas of concern on product handling at the manufacturing level, however, the NCC awaits a final report from Shoprite Checkers.
"Parallel to the said in-house processes, the NCC is independently investigating the recalled products on identified operational issues that pertain to food safety," the NCC said.
In a statement on Wednesday, acting Commissioner, Hardin Ratshisusu, urged consumers "to immediately stop consuming the products and return same to the supplier for a full refund with or without any proof of purchase".
He also said at this stage, the NCC was not able to determine the extent of the distribution of the products as it is the subject of an investigation.
The NCC also urged suppliers not to distribute these products any further until the investigation is finalised.
"The NCC is monitoring this recall based on the Product Recall provisions of the Consumer Protection Action read with the product recall safety guidelines.
The NCC said the affected products are the Deli Hummus range, specifically the following:
The respective sell-by dates of the products are 10 September 2024 to 08 October 2024.
