Vital Health Foods joins list of recent consumer recalls

Vital Health Foods has issued an immediate recall of its Mini Corn Cakes and Mini Rice Cakes after metal fragments were found in products purchased by two customers.

The fragments appear to have been caused by an equipment malfunction during the manufacturing process‚ the company said on Thursday.

Vital Foods joins a long list of companies that have recently recalled products.

Just last month‚ Japanese carmaker Toyota’s South African unit recalled more than 700‚000 vehicles because of an issue with safety bags‚ an official at Toyota South Africa said.

The vehicles being recalled are the Hilux‚ Rav4 and Fortuner models built between July 2003 to December 2005‚ and Yaris‚ RunX and Corolla models built between 2002 to 2007. Around 100 million vehicles were recalled globally.

In June last year‚ about 880 Bosch gas ovens believed to have been sold in South Africa were recalled after it was found that they have a risk of exploding.

BSH Home Appliances placed adverts in three daily newspapers and in the Sunday Times warning of the "potential risk of explosion" related to the connecting pipes on a freestanding Bosch gas cooker produced between August 2006 and October 2011.

In August last year‚ Ford issued an urgent safety recall after yet another fire threat to its luxury Kuga SUVs‚ this time near its front seatbelts. Hundreds of owners received e-mails urging them to bring their car to a dealer because of fears that insulation near the front seatbelts could catch alight in a collision.

Reshall Jimmy was killed when his Kuga caught fire while he was on holiday in the Wilderness‚ in the Western Cape‚ in December 2015. After his death‚ 64 other Kugas caught fire in South Africa‚ two of them within the two months.

The first two recalls were for faulty coolant systems‚ which Ford said had led to the vehicle's cylinder head cracking‚ allowing oil to leak onto the hot engine and catch fire.