Pioneer Foods announces recall of certain products under the Safari brand in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia

 Pioneer Foods has launched a recall of specific batches of the Peanuts & Raisins and Raw Cashew nuts products, sold under its Safari brand in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia, according to a statement released on Monday (December 6).

Routine testing at the Safari production site in KwaZulu-Natal identified a batch of products that tested positive for low levels of Salmonella Typhimurium (“salmonella”).

Salmonella is a group of bacteria that causes a wide spectrum of diseases. The most common type is estimated by the World Health Organisation to affect over 17 million people worldwide each year.

Salmonella Typhimurium causes gastroenteritis, leading to diarrhea, vomiting, fever and abdominal cramps. These symptoms may last up to seven days. People infected by Salmonella Typhimurium rarely require antibiotics or hospitalisation.

Based on safety protocols, production was immediately halted while the product was placed on hold and ring-fenced. The production site was then deep-cleaned, and vector sampling was completed.

However, on November 17, a limited number of cases of Safari 60g Peanuts & Raisins (best before October 27, 2022) and Safari 100g Raw Cashews (best before June 27, 2022) were released to trade, despite having been isolated and ring-fenced for destruction.

According to the statement, these are the only stock units that have been affected.

“This limited number of affected products should never have been released into trade, and whilst we have not received any health-related complaints from consumers to date, we have decided to proceed to proactively recall these specific products,” explains Tertius Carstens, CEO.

“We have managed to retrieve 92% of the impacted product at the time of this communication,” the statement read.

The following Safari Peanuts & Raisins and Raw Cashew nuts products, with the relevant batch and production codes, distributed inside South Africa, Botswana and Namibia are affected:

Product Variety	Pack size	PD and BB dates	Image	Country
Peanuts &  Raisins	60g	BB 27/10/2022		South Africa and Namibia
Cashews Raw	100g	BB 27/6/2022		South Africa and Botswana

“All other Safari products remain safe for consumption. We have already engaged with the South African National Consumer Commission as well as the South African Department of Health.”