The Health Ministry ruled today (Sunday) that the "Hanasich" tehina company will no longer be allowed to manufacture or distribute its products until further notice, after its raw tehina was found to be infected with Salmonella, leading to a recall of many products containing Hanasich tehina.
"Hanasich tehina company has conducted itself in a negligent, irresponsible, unfitting, and unprofessional manner," the Health Ministry ruling read.
The Ministry ordered the company to destroy all the Salmonella-infected tehina stock. The investigation is still ongoing. Another sampling of the stock in the Hanasich factory took place today. The Health Ministry will examine further legal steps upon conclusion of the investigation.
The Salmonella was discovered on July 25 during a test by the "Strauss" company that uses the tehina in some of its packaged salads.
Hanasich CEO Afif Tanus took responsibility for the incident, saying: "This is our first such issue. We're a factory that's inexperienced in these matters. I apologize personally and take responsibility for all the damage.
"The moment we got any indication of a possibility that an infected product might reach the consumers, we made the decision to stop the manufacturing process and we cleaned all the machines. Today we got good results on tests. But we won't continue production until we get the go-ahead from the Health Ministry," the CEO clarified last week.