The foods linked to the world’s largest outbreak of listeria are Enterprise polony‚ smoked Russians and frankfurters‚ all coming from a single factory in Polokwane‚ Limpopo‚ run by Enterprise‚ a part of Tiger Brands.

Rainbow Chicken polony is also a cause of listeriosis.

Listeria bacteria was found at two Enterprise processed meat factories and one Rainbow Chicken polony factory in the Free State.

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said authorities in charge‚ which most likely fall under local government‚ would need to shut the Enterprise Polokwane factory down.

After children who had eaten Enterprise polony had become sick and were treated at Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital in Johannesburg in January‚ authorities went to the factory to do detailed testing on February 2

Results were confirmed on Saturday night‚ a month later.

More than 300 samples were taken from the factory and 16 tested positive for listeria monocytogenes strain ST6‚ the strain most to blame for this outbreak.

This is what most of the patients in the outbreak that killed 180 people were infected with.

All foods made in that factory will have to be recalled and removed from consumer’s shelves‚ said the National Consumer Commission.

Results from the factory tests should have taken just over two weeks but a shortage of solution used for testing listeria in the country delayed results‚ said National Institute for Communicable Diseases Dr Juno Thomas. “We had to wait for the solution to come from overseas.”

Thomas explained that even though Rainbow Food’s chicken polony factory in Sasolburg had tested positive for a different strain of listeria‚ there were patients who had also got sick from this strain. This is why Rainbow Chicken polony was being recalled.

Additionally‚ more than one Enterprise Factory was implicated. Listeria bacteria was found in a processed meat factory in Germiston and results for the strain of listeria were outstanding.

National Consumer Commission deputy commissioner Thenzi Mabuza said “companies would have to come up with a plan on how they would recall all products which they must present on Monday morning”.

“They also need to let us know which other products were made in the factories and could have been contaminated by listeria bacteria. They also need to say the time they are going to take to recall the product and the strategy of how consumers dispose of products.”

Consumers who have Rainbow Chicken polony‚ Enterprise ready-to-eat meat products such as polony and Russians should decontaminate their fridge with diluted bleach.

No pregnant women should eat any processed meat products such as viennas and polony‚ the health minister warned.