Updated Statement on Appletiser Product Withdrawal
As previously communicated, during a routine quality test, specific batches of Appletiser were found to be outside the acceptable quality standards.
18-10-2021
The affected batches were found to contain a mycotoxin ‘patulin’ above the permitted tolerance (50ppb) for foodstuff. Coca‑Cola South Africa (a division of Coca‑Cola Africa) immediately notified the national health authority, National Consumer Commission and retailers in possession of the affected batches in order to isolate them. In addition, consumers were proactively informed through various communications platforms including social media. In parallel, Coca‑Cola South Africa launched, as part of its internal process, an investigation to determine the origin of the issue. This action led to tracing back the issue to one single raw material source used to produce the six batches previously identified. An additional two batches of Appletiser have subsequently been found to be similarly affected.
These additional batches represent a total of 7251 cases and are identified by the following date codes:
· 275 ml Non-Returnable Glass - BB 16 May 2022
· 275 ml Non-Returnable Glass - BB 17 May 2022
Coca‑Cola would like to reiterate that the health and wellbeing of our consumers is our primary concern and together with our bottlers, Coca‑Cola Beverages South Africa and Coca‑Cola Peninsula Beverages, we will continue our efforts to withdraw all affected stock from the market nationwide.
We urge all consumers that have purchased an Appletiser product from the above batches to contact the call centre on 0860112526 or via email on ccsainfo@coca-cola.com, to arrange for the collection and exchange of the product. The batch numbers can be found on the top or bottom of the packs.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused.