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Pioneer foods announces recall of certain 100% apple juice products under the Liquifruit brand (in SA, Botswana, Namibia) and cares brand (exports)

| Awards and achievements

Pioneer Foods is launching a recall of certain 100% apple juice products, sold under its LiquiFruit brand in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia, and Ceres brand in other jurisdictions.

Liquid Fruit Apple Juice


| Fleishman Hillard

“The health and wellbeing of our consumers is of absolute importance to us, and hence when we identified the potential of a food safety issue, following in-house standard testing and engagement with one of our local suppliers, we immediately launched an internal investigation into all our 100% apple juice products” explains Tertius Carstens, CEO.The investigation to date, has confirmed that a limited quantity of apple juice concentrate supplied to us, contained elevated levels of patulin. Based on these results the company took the decision to launch the recall. Patulin is a naturally occurring mycotoxin commonly associated with apples. The recall is based on the presence of this mycotoxin (patulin) exceeding 50 parts per billion (microgram/kg) which is the regulatory threshold.“We have taken the decision, as a precautionary measure and with the interests of our consumers at heart, to launch a recall of products produced from the apple juice concentrate batch in question”.The following LiquiFruit 100% Apple Juice SKUs sold inside South Africa, Botswana and Namibia are affected, with the relevant batch and production codes below:

Product Name

Single unit barcode

Date Coding

LiquiFruit Clear Apple 250ml carton

60052599

PD 11.06.2021 / BB 11.06.2022

LiquiFruit Clear Apple 330ml can

6001240225561

PD 07.06.2021 / BB 07.06.2022
PD 08.06.2021 / BB 08.06.2022

LiquiFruit Clear Apple 300ml can

6001240239346

PD 21.06.2021 / BB 21.06.2022

LiquiFruit Clear Apple 1L

6001048000339

PD 07.06.2021 / BB 07.06.2022
PD 08.06.2021 / BB 08.06.2022



The following Ceres 100% Apple Juice SKUs sold outside of South Africa are affected, with the relevant batch and production codes below:

Product Name

Single unit barcode

Date coding


Export: Ceres Apple 4x6x200ml

6001240200018

PD 14.06.2021 / BB 14.06.2022
PD 21.06.2021 / BB 21.06.2022
PD 22.06.2021 / BB 22.06.2022

Export:
Ceres Apple  Sparkling 275 ml glass

6 001240 222676

PD 14.06.2021 / BB 14.06.2022
PD 15.06.2021 / BB 15.06.2022

Export: Ceres Apple 12x1L

6001240100011

PD 17.06.2021 / BB 17.06.2022
PD 18.06.2021 / BB 18.06.2022
PD 21.06.2021 / BB 21.06.2022
PD 22.06.2021 / BB 22.06.2022


Carstens clarifies: “We have not received any complaints from consumers about these products but decided to accelerate further testing on this product range to be absolutely certain of the extent of the potential impact”.

Consumers who have the products listed above, with the specific batch or date coding, are urged to return these products to the retailer from which they were purchased, to receive a full refund.

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