- The snack food industry is battling a wave of misinformation about pills being found in chips, leading to boycotts and financial losses.
- Evidence suggests some children may be fabricating claims to get free snacks, further fueling the panic.
- Manufacturers and spaza shops are taking legal action and implementing measures to protect their businesses and restore consumer trust.
“Don’t blame the chips” is Pieter Riekert’s take on the wave of suspicion of “pills in snack packs” that has taken hold nationwide.
Riekert is labour-relations manager of Truda Foods, one of the largest manufacturers of snack packs in the country.
Truda and other manufacturers of snack packs are considering laying criminal charges against individuals who keep on spreading false claims about pills found in snack-pack products.
The whole snack food manufacturing industry that makes chips, pretzels and cookies are being crippled, something that also affects the suppliers of packaging material, colouring, flavouring and the companies that handle the distribution.
Despite a broad boycott against the purchase of chips in particular at spaza shops on the West Coast, Weslander has not yet been able to find any clear evidence of anyone accidentally swallowing a pill or being injured in that way. Or of a pill in a still sealed packet.
The West Coast police said previously that in cases where children brought forth pills that they claimed were found in snack packs, they were sent for forensic analysis.
Free packets
However, two videos provided to Weslander paint a very different picture: of children in spaza shops putting pills into snack packets themselves before showing them to the shop owners and acting disgruntled.
“It’s just a tactic to get a free packet of chips,” believes one spaza shop owner from the West Coast who wishes to remain anonymous.
To appease the community and not cause trouble for his shop or his staff, the last few weeks he has been giving free packets of chips away daily, even though he knows the children are lying.
The despondent shop owner said his sales of chips like Spookies, Flyers, Big Snacker Nacks, Cracker Snack en Spack Haven have plummeted.
A wholesaler in Vredenburg, Derick Lin, decided to help totally discouraged spaza shop owners by taking back the chips they had bought in bulk from him and returning their money.
His store’s overall chip sales have also plummeted tremendously.
Various types of chips and snacks from different manufacturers have been indicated in photos and videos widely distributed on social media.
In these, a pill is shown next to chips out of the bag, but the pills have not been affected by the colourings, flavourings and oil in the packets.
Misinformation not taken lightly
According to Riekert, Truda takes the circulation of false rumours so seriously that its legal department has been sending attorneys’ letters to people who post and spread the fake news on social media.
“If you don’t stop, we will take further action. It has to end.”
Each incident is thoroughly investigated, and the company is considering filing criminal charges and other snack pack manufacturers, like Dragonfly Foods from Montagu, are following suit.
Astrid Bridger from Dragonfly said the firm was also busy with investigations and considering laying criminal charges.
“The boycotting of the chips is devastating,” Bridger said.
Their personnel are sitting at home with only one production line working.
Truda had to suspend manufacturing in Cape Town for at least two days because its stock was piling up and the warehouse was running out of space.
“We have been in operation for 30 years and make about 12,5 million snack packs a day,” Riekert said, and it was forced to put personnel on early leave rotation because of the misinformation campaign.
Some spaza shopkeepers have been threatened by members of the communities in which their shops are located to remove all chips from their shelves or their shops “will be burnt down.”
The law and bylaws rule that no-one besides a health inspector or law-enforcement officer can force a shop owner to remove products from their shelves without good cause shown.
High temperatures
The manufacturing process of snack foods involves temperatures of up to 200 °C, which no pill will be able to withstand.
“Nothing can survive at those temperatures,” Riekert pointed out.
The processes are so automated that if an error is found with a package, the machine that sealed the packet and at what time can be traced.
“The only time a human hand touches a packet is when a packer puts it in the bags in which it is sold in bulk, and who the packer is can also be determined,” Riekert said.
“Packages are sealed within thirty seconds of the mixture being passed through the hot oil.”
Manufacturers are subject to strict audits to ensure they comply with food safety regulations.
Truda’ facilities are Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) certified which includes, but is not limited to all its processes from receiving, manufacturing and distributing. “We have a certificate of acceptability by the Department of Health who also inspects our facilities regularly,” Riekert said.
Spaza shops must, on their end, ensure their products are not kept on the floor, for example, but on shelves or wood pellets.
The public has a responsibility to report shops that do not meet health requirements to the authorities.
All the producers Weslander spoke to suspect the misinformation campaign is particularly aimed at spaza-shop owners. Some spaza-shop owners complained about extortionists who wanted to force them to pay “protection money” before the pills-in-chips debacle. They were already fearful then.
Riaan Miggel, operations manager of SUZ Food Branch in Pretoria and Cape Town, previously stated that the misinformation campaign is politically driven. “It’s extortion,” he said.
The campaign initially aimed at spaza shop owners is now paralysing an entire industry to the detriment of poorer communities.
For many children on the West Coast, a small packet of chips or pretzels is all they can afford to buy as a before or an after school snack.
