The Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU) is disturbed by the impact on jobs following the generalized and unclear public pronouncements made by the Minister of Health relating to the outbreak of Listeriosis in the processed ready-to-eat meat.

Firstly, the Minister has not clarified that not all the companies involved in the ready-to-eat meat cannot be blamed for the outbreak, other than Tiger Group’s division trade as Enterprise, and that those may not have such a disease in their operations. The glaring example is Escourt business that produces/processes these ready-to-eat meant (polonies, viennas and russians)

Also, with RCL Foods red-flagged but with results still to be confirmed, the Minister ought to have made it clear that the RCL ready-to-eat products may not be bought or consumed as a precautionary until irrefutable results are released. Worse still, the Minister ought to have repeatedly made it clear that it is only the RCL Foods division and not the RCL Chicken that is red-flagged as fresh and frozen chicken is confused with Listeriosis.

With the above said, both the Escourt and RCL Chicken products have seen the drop on sales as the Minister’s created confusion raging with consumers running away from purchasing Escort’s ready-to-eat and RCL fresh and frozen chicken products. The consequence will be that illegally dumped and illicitly traded products will take over and jobs, estimated at thousands, are now at stake.

We call on the Minister to clarify the nation with concrete and clear statements as his pronouncements have created health scare and panic is the name of the game.

Issued by Food and Allied Workers Union