By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The National Consumer Commission on Thursday named Howe instant noodles as the brand linked to the suspicious deaths of at least three children.
The three, aged 11, 7, and six months,died on their way to a clinic in the Easter Cape in early died on their way to a clinic in the Eastern Cape in November after eating noodles and, not long after, complaining of nausea and stomach cramps.
Later in the month,siblings aged nine and 13 died in Mpumalanga within an hour of one another, and police said the only link they could find was the pack of noodles the pair had shared that morning.
The Consumer Commission said it had launched an investigation “into the conduct of Grandisync CC, the supplier of Howe Instant Noodles based in Uitenhage”, after the Eastern Cape deaths.
“[B]ased on the information provided to the Commission by other regulators and the supplier, the NCC has reasonable suspicion to believe that Grandisync CC supplied unsafe goods or goods that posed a potential risk to the public”, said the watchdog in a statement.
The national department of health has been investigating several instances of suspected food poisioning since mid-November, but has not released the details of the products involved.
The Howe noodles are labelled as a “product of South Africa”, and punted as a quality product.
“An easy to prepare meal which is locally manufactured to the highest standards using only the best-sourced ingredients,” reads one of its previous marketing descriptions.
The official ingredients list of the instant noodles themselves is simple: wheat flour, palm oil, salt, tapioca starch, and water. A typical seasoning mix is not much more complex, with a fair amount of salt and sucrose, though it does contain ingredients that sometimes gives consumers pause, such as monosodium glutamate (MSG) and fellow flavour enhancing agent E635, or disodium 5′-ribonucleotides.
The watchdog said that while the Commission is awaiting laboratory results, this investigation will help the Commission understand the nature, causes, extent and degree of the risk to the public
Meanwhile the manufacturers of Howe Instant Noodles said they have learned with great sadness of the recent passing of three young children in the Eastern Cape who allegedly consumed a packet of their noodles.
In an official statement released by their attorneys, the manufacturer said that they immediately launched their own investigation into the matter the moment they heard about the tragedy.
It said the safety of their consumers is their biggest concern and as manufacturers of a branded product they have the responsibility to ensure that it is safe for consumption.
According to their attorneys, Stuart Laubscher Incorporated, their internal investigation brought to light that the brand of the noodles consumed by the children had never been identified and the children’s official cause of death is still outstanding.