{"id":853644,"date":"2026-03-11T15:52:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T13:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=853644"},"modified":"2026-04-02T10:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T08:01:09","slug":"checkers-pulls-one-of-its-own-food-products-from-its-shelves-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/853644\/checkers-pulls-one-of-its-own-food-products-from-its-shelves-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Checkers pulls one of its own food products from its shelves in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Checkers has reportedly pulled one of its own-brand Ready to Braai Smokey Stuffed Chicken Breast packs after customers complained that the pack contained more sauce than chicken. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A frustrated customer took to social media<\/a> on 20 February to share their experience after ordering a Ready to Braai Smokey Stuffed Chicken Breast pack through the Checkers Sixty60 delivery service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the customer, it was immediately clear when opening the pack that something was wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They claimed the container appeared to contain more sweet barbecue sauce than chicken breast, despite the packaging suggesting otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To test their suspicion, the customer separated the chicken from the sauce and weighed each component individually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The results showed that the pack contained 246 grams of chicken\u2014including the stuffing\u2014amounting to 49% of the total weight. The sauce, however, weighed 264 grams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This appeared to contradict the product\u2019s packaging, which stated in fine print that it contains 62% chicken breast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the social media post, the customer also suggested that the issue might not only be misleading but potentially unlawful under South African food labelling regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it might also be illegal for you to not stipulate that more than 50% of the stated weight is liquid marinade,\u201d the customer wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concern relates to South Africa\u2019s Quantitative Ingredient Declaration (QUID) rules<\/a>, which require certain ingredients to be clearly disclosed on product labels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

QUID forms part of Regulation 26 of the Regulations Relating to the Labelling and Advertising of Foodstuffs (R146).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These rules are designed to help consumers make informed purchasing decisions by showing the percentage of key ingredients used in a product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under these regulations, the percentage of an ingredient must be declared when it is emphasised in the name of the product\u2014such as \u201cchicken\u201d in a chicken-based meal\u2014or highlighted through imagery or marketing on the packaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corrective measures are being taken<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>
Checkers’ 500g Ready to Braai Smokey Stuffed Chicken Breast<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The declared percentage must reflect the ingredient\u2019s weight at the time of manufacture relative to the total weight of all ingredients used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regulations also set specific rounding rules, requiring figures to be rounded to the nearest 1%, or to the nearest 0.5% if the ingredient content is below 5%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the online complaint, the retailer\u2019s parent company, Shoprite Holdings, confirmed that the smokey chicken product had been withdrawn from sale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a report by News24<\/a>, Shoprite said its supplier conducted an internal investigation, which identified a production processing error at the manufacturing facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company added that corrective measures have since been implemented to strengthen quality control processes and prevent a repeat of the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shoprite also said it is working on improving transparency for online shoppers by making full ingredient lists available for all private-label products sold online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the controversy surrounding the chicken product, the retailer\u2019s broader performance has remained strong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shoprite reported<\/a> that merchandise sales from continuing operations increased by 7.2% to about R136.8 billion for the six months ending 31 December 2025\u2014an increase of roughly R9.2 billion compared to the same period a year earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sales at Shoprite and Usave stores grew by 5.1%, while Checkers and Checkers Hyper recorded stronger growth of 8.9%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sixty60 delivery platform continued to expand rapidly, with sales jumping 34.6% to R11.9 billion over the six months, and the service is now available from 875 stores across South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BusinessTech has reached out to Shoprite for an update on the incident and will add its response once we have received it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Checkers has reportedly pulled one of its own-brand braai packs after customers complained that the pack contained more sauce than chicken.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":767376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[5223,853],"class_list":["post-853644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-checkers","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853644"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":855809,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853644\/revisions\/855809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}