'White slime' – imported from Brazil

at R4 a kilogram – may have triggered

South Africa’s listeriosis crisis
Helena Wasserman , Business Insider SA
Mar 05, 2018, 11:26 AM

Photo: Jay Caboz

 The listeriosis crisis may have originated from an imported, mechanically-

recovered poultry product.
 Also called "white slime", it contains chicken bones and bone marrow.

 SA receives most of its mechanically recovered poultry from Brazil, which

exports it at R4.21 a kilogram.

The country’s listeriosis crisis may have been triggered by a chicken paste known as
"white slime", a meat scientist has told Business Insider South Africa.

South African polony and other process meats must contain 75% of "meat
equivalent" under legislation that is 45 years old.

The meat equivalent is calculated by determining the total amount of nitrogen in a

sample and multiplying by a factor of 30. It can include all kinds of protein, including
soy, pork fat – and also mechanically deboned chicken, says Louw Hoffman, a
professor in meat science at the University of Stellenbosch.

Also called "white slime", the US government's official definition of mechanically

deboned chicken is: "a paste-like and batter-like poultry product produced by forcing
bones with attached edible tissue through a sieve or similar device under high
pressure to separate bone from the edible tissue".

In a nutshell: after chicken breasts and thighs are removed, small pieces of chicken
remain on the bones. High-pressure machines are used to separate the carcass. The
chicken bits are then pureed with small pieces of bone and bone marrow to form a
paste that is used in processed meats.

South African imported 202 million kilograms of mechanically deboned chicken last
year, most of it from Brazil. In December 2017 alone, 12 million kilograms of this
product was imported from Brazil – at a cost of only R4.21 per kilogram, according
to the SA Poultry Association.

Hoffman believes South African polony and viennas must contain some of this
imported chicken product to help keep the cost of the products down, and to ensure
affordability of protein for lower-income groups.

“This means that the strain of listeriosis may have originated from overseas.”

Earlier, the South African Department of Agriculture‚ Forestry and Fisheries said it
was looking to temporarily ban meat imports from countries like Brazil to combat
the listeriosis outbreak. South Africa also imports mechanically deboned chicken
from Thailand (174,000kg in December 2017), the US (27,000kg and Argentina
(1,000kg).

According to one academic study, listeriosis remains an under-diagnosed and under-

reported infection in Brazil as it is not a compulsorily notifiable disease in that
country.
 How the deadly strain of listeriosis was
traced to Tiger Brands’ Enterprise
polony factory
Phillip de Wet , Business Insider SA
Mar 04, 2018, 05:23 PM

 A listeriosis outbreak in Soweto provided the breakthrough in tracing the

bacterial outbreak.

 Nine young children were hospitalised with with febrile gastro-enteritis.

 Samples from food they had eaten at a crèche – made by Enterprise – satisfied
the investigators they had tracked down the source.

Interviews with 109 people who fell ill with listeriosis pointed strongly to cold meats
such as polony, health minister Aaron Motsoaledi said on Sunday.

But it was the hospitalisation of a group of children in Soweto that provided the
crucial breakthrough that led to the government identifying the Tiger Brands owned
Enterprise as the source of the biggest outbreak the world has ever seen.

Of the people interviewed 85% had eaten some sort of ready-to-eat processed
meat, Motsoaledi said, mostly polony.

Then, in mid January, nine children under the age of five years old arrived at
the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto with with febrile gastro-enteritis.
A paediatrician who suspected listeriosis alerted inspectors, who visited the crèche
the children attend. There they found two brands of polony, one from Enterprise and
the other from Rainbow Chicken Limited.

Both polony samples tested positive for the bacteria that causes listeriosis, Listeria
monocytogenes. So did a stool sample from one of the children.

All three samples showed the presence of sequence type 6 (ST6) bacteria, the
specific strain that is strongly believed to be behind the South African outbreak.
A veritable army descended on the Enterprise facility in Polokwane to collect
samples there: representatives of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases,
three foreign advisors from the World Health Organisation, and government
inspectors from two different departments.

"Listeria monocytogenes was isolated from over 30% of the environmental samples
collected from this site," said Motsoaledi.

"To conclude the investigation, whole genome sequencing analysis was performed
from this Enterprise factory... The outbreak strain, ST6, was confirmed in at least 16
environmental samples collected from this Enterprise facility."

Its own tests had found "low detection of a strain of listeria in some products" Tiger
Brands said. but had not yet confirmed the ST6 strain.

Tiger Brands said it had learned about the presence of listeria in its products on 14
February – 18 days before the government forced it into a recall.