By:  Marelise van der Merwe – News24

Lucky Star has distanced itself from a consignment of counterfeit canned pilchards seized during a raid last week, owner Oceana said in a statement on Tuesday (19/11/2024).

This comes after police made several arrests and seized printing equipment at a facility in Johannesburg last Monday.

Retailer Woolworths launched its own probe into a counterfeit operation involving canned pilchards, it said on Saturday. Authorities found a large quantity of unlabelled pilchards that were being branded "Lucky Star" and packed in Woolworths-labelled cartons, News24 previously reported. 

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

On Tuesday morning, Oceana said it had "categorically confirmed" the pilchards were not its own product.

"The labels are counterfeit, and we do not use ring-pull lids on our canned pilchards," it said. Oceana's statement largely tallied with Woolworths' version of events, which was that the pilchards appeared to have originated from a rejected consignment.

"So far, investigations have established that an international manufacturer produced the canned pilchards under the Woolworths brand. The retailer imported and received them, but later rejected the consignment and asked the supplier to collect it.

"After collection, some of the consignment appears to have been intercepted and illegally relabelled as Lucky Star and repacked into the Woolworths-labelled cartons," Oceana said.

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

Oceana, meanwhile, said consumers should check label quality, print quality, and legibility of the bar code, as well as the alignment of the label to the can, saying poor print quality or label alignment could be an indication of counterfeit goods. It also noted that it did not use ring-pull or easy-opening lids on its products.

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