Kevin Plasket is a consumer after my own heart. Not only did he read date and batch numbers on a product, but he took his concerns about them to the manufacturer's door. And when he got no joy there, he didn't let it ride. When the Johannesburg reader tipped me off to having found recalled batches of Tastic rice and sauce products back on supermarket shelves, alarm bells rang.In October last year, Tiger Brands recalled all June and July 2014 batches of Tastic Simply Delicious ready-to-eat rice and Tastic cook-in sauces, made in India, after tests revealed the stock had been contaminated with the industrial dye Sudan Red and another banned colourant, Methyl Yellow.Sudan Red, legally used to colour petrol, waxes and shoe polish, is classified as a potential cancer-causing agent. It's illegal in food.story_article_left1Tiger Brands' customer service department told Plasket last month that the stock shouldn't have been on the shelf and assured him an audit had been done. But when Plasket failed to get a proper explanation for why the stock remained on the shelf in some Pick n Pay and Checkers stores in Johannesburg, he e-mailed me. After a check of Durban and Cape Town stores revealed the implicated batches on sale there, too, I contacted Tiger Brands.Turns out the batches are indeed those involved in last year's recall - but are specific batches and variants that tested negative for the contaminant.Tiger had taken "a conservative approach" when it discovered the tainted product, pulling all stock out of the market and destroying it. The remaining stock in its warehouse was quarantined and analysed.All tainted warehouse stock was also destroyed but safe stock, some of which carried June/July 2014 date codes, was reintroduced into the trade in May.The original tainted stock on store shelves had slipped through last year because Tiger had released stock before laboratory results from local testing had come in. The company had introduced additional local testing following the Sunday Times's 2005 exposé of Sudan Red in chilli powders and spice products, which sparked the country's biggest food recall.Tiger Brands spokeswoman Brenda Koornneef said Tiger had beefed up its testing process even further. Its supplier in India now guaranteed testing of ingredients as they came into the factory, she said.The end product was tested in India, and the results and samples were sent to Tiger. Only after the product was tested by Tiger in South Africa was the shipment approved. The product was then re-tested on arrival."We appreciate how [seeing recalled stock back on the shelf] can cause anxiety and confusion ... and apologise for the inconvenience," said Koornneef. "Having vigilant consumers like Mr Plasket is important to us."Indeed, to us all...