By Marelise van der Merwe – Fin24

Retailer Woolworths has launched its own probe into a counterfeit operation involving canned pilchards, it said in a statement.

This comes after police arrested seven undocumented immigrants and seized printing equipment used to change expiry dates at a facility in Johannesburg on Monday.

In a raid that was widely reported earlier in the week, authorities also found a large quantity of unlabelled pilchards that were being branded "Lucky Star" and packed in Woolworths-labelled cartons. 

A case of contravention of the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act; contravention of the Immigration Act; and possession of suspected stolen property was opened.

The statement from Woolworths comes a day after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced urgent interventions to deal with the country's food poisoning crisis, which claimed the lives of 22 children.

Woolworths said it had "strong reason to believe" that it had previously rejected the seized pilchards.

"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."

The retailer stressed that products with its label should only be purchased at its own stores or via its online channel.

* This article has been amended to clarify that the pilchards were being labelled as Lucky Star and packed in Woolworths-labelled boxes.

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