Preliminary test results from an independent laboratory show XPOP Energy Cola Fizz lollipops were not responsible for suspected food poisoning at a Verulam school, Richester Foods said on Wednesday.
The sweet company released the results on Monday after 40 pupils at Lotusville Primary School fell ill on Friday afternoon after ingesting the lollipops purchased from pupils during the school’s market day.
Richester Foods MD Hussein Cassim said the product batch was sent to the laboratory for chemical and microbiological analysis.
“After performing extensive tests on the lollipops, KLM High-Giene failed to detect bacterial contamination or causes that could relate to ill health,” he said.
In a letter, in possession of TimesLIVE, KLM director Khutsiso Kgole stated: “We can therefore categorically confirm that, for the above-mentioned samples, which were tested, zero counts of the following tests were detected: Coliforms, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes and Bacillus cereus.”
Cassim said while the company was still awaiting final results, the bacteria listed by the laboratory’s preliminary results were those responsible for food poisoning.
The company shared the results with the school and other stakeholders to aid their own investigations into finding the cause of the children’s illness.
“We had a meeting with the school principal where she confirmed they ate a host of homemade baked goods, as it was market day, before our pop, and she also agreed food poisoning usually takes hours to manifest, not immediately after ingesting,” said Cassim.
“We hope the cause of the illness is revealed, as our brand suffered damage. Our consumers are the heart of our business and especially the children around the country and in KwaZulu-Natal who eat our sweets and our XPOP lollipops every day. We take all allegations of this nature very seriously.
“These laboratory tests have upheld our confidence in the quality of our products and the strength of our strict food safety and hygiene standards. Our thoughts are with the children and we hope the school’s management and relevant authorities will find the real culprit soon.
“Given the seriousness of the claims, we hope these test results will address any lingering concerns and we urge the school and other stakeholders to keep investigating and checking for possible causes.”
TimesLIVE
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Prelim lab test clears XPOP Energy Cola Fizz lollipops of suspected food poisoning at Verulam school
Image: supplied
Preliminary test results from an independent laboratory show XPOP Energy Cola Fizz lollipops were not responsible for suspected food poisoning at a Verulam school, Richester Foods said on Wednesday.
The sweet company released the results on Monday after 40 pupils at Lotusville Primary School fell ill on Friday afternoon after ingesting the lollipops purchased from pupils during the school’s market day.
Richester Foods MD Hussein Cassim said the product batch was sent to the laboratory for chemical and microbiological analysis.
“After performing extensive tests on the lollipops, KLM High-Giene failed to detect bacterial contamination or causes that could relate to ill health,” he said.
In a letter, in possession of TimesLIVE, KLM director Khutsiso Kgole stated: “We can therefore categorically confirm that, for the above-mentioned samples, which were tested, zero counts of the following tests were detected: Coliforms, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes and Bacillus cereus.”
Cassim said while the company was still awaiting final results, the bacteria listed by the laboratory’s preliminary results were those responsible for food poisoning.
The company shared the results with the school and other stakeholders to aid their own investigations into finding the cause of the children’s illness.
“We had a meeting with the school principal where she confirmed they ate a host of homemade baked goods, as it was market day, before our pop, and she also agreed food poisoning usually takes hours to manifest, not immediately after ingesting,” said Cassim.
“We hope the cause of the illness is revealed, as our brand suffered damage. Our consumers are the heart of our business and especially the children around the country and in KwaZulu-Natal who eat our sweets and our XPOP lollipops every day. We take all allegations of this nature very seriously.
“These laboratory tests have upheld our confidence in the quality of our products and the strength of our strict food safety and hygiene standards. Our thoughts are with the children and we hope the school’s management and relevant authorities will find the real culprit soon.
“Given the seriousness of the claims, we hope these test results will address any lingering concerns and we urge the school and other stakeholders to keep investigating and checking for possible causes.”
TimesLIVE
Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.
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