Retail group Shoprite says all the affected in-house pilchards tins which have been recalled by their producer are no longer on its shelves.

However, the company would not say how many of the tins sold in its stores nationwide had been recalled.

At the weekend, West Point Processors, which supplies Shoprite, Checkers and OK stores, announced a recall of its pilchards in tomato sauce 400g tins. Customers who have purchased these items recently were urged to return them for a refund.

West Point Processors said the recall is only related to the 400g pilchards in tomato sauce products which have the specific batch codes starting with ZST2 and ZSC2.

In its statement, West Point Processors warned that there is a small possibility that some tins in the specified batch may have a "canning deficiency" which could make them "unfit for consumption".

West Point Processors said most of the stock that may contain deficient cans had been isolated in the manufacturer's factory, in retail distribution centres across the country and removed from sale in stores.

However, it is possible that consumers may recently have purchased an affected tin.

Shoprite Group yesterday said it had removed the affected goods from its shelves.

"The Shoprite Group has removed from sale the relevant batch codes communicated by the supplier - ZST2 and ZSC2. The total number of tins is not known yet. According to the supplier no other batch codes are affected," the company said.

The affected brands are Cape Point and Saldanha as well as Shoprite Ritebrand, Checkers Housebrand, U-brand and OK Housebrand.

Efforts to get comment from West Point Processors were unsuccessful.