The owner of a company in Mookgophong (Naboomspruit) in Limpopo that manufactures cake colouring was admitted to hospital last week after a suicide attempt, in the wake of a Carte Blanche exposé in which it was alleged his products contained toxic car paint and printer ink.
News24 reports that several former staff from Andries Kemp’s company, Rolkem, claimed on the programme that the company would buy non-edible colour products and sell them to bakers wanting to decorate their cakes or cupcakes with gold, glitter or bright colours.
Rolkem maintains this is a smear campaign and that it is taking legal action against Carte Blanche.
The former employees said that products were bought from companies including chemical manufacturer AECI, Delta Colours (which manufactures pigments for use in cosmetics, construction, plastics and ink), and a My China discount store on the East Rand.
Johan Lourens, one of the former employees, told Carte Blanche: “We were never allowed to write in our logbooks about the time it took us to fetch products or where we were, because colouring was bought from companies selling non-edible colouring, roof paint, dye for clothes and dye for plastic. They are not edible at all.”
Heindrich Oberholzer, previously Rolkem’s general manager, said the brightly-coloured Lumo range was purchased from Delta Colours, which made its clients sign a form undertaking not to use the products in food.
Regarding Rolkem’s Glitter range, according to Mark Alan O’Shann, another former employee, contains sparkles purchased from My China’s art section.
“It’s just plastic,” he said.
When Kemp was asked about the products bought from Delta Colours, he claimed Rolkem didn’t only sell food products, but also art products, and even products for vehicles.
However, there was no evidence of this on his company’s website or on a product list.
Pieter Meyer, Rolkem’s GM, said the Glitter products contained microplastics and were therefore only suitable as decoration.
“We state clearly on our product characteristics list that the ‘glitter’ is only intended for decorations… people like TikTok influencers who want to make their stuff look pretty,” he said.
But in the catalogue on Rolkem’s website, there are no indications that any of its products are intended only for decoration, with each one marketed as 100% edible.
Meyer said Rolkem has 385 products, and that the company – and Kemp – are victims of a “smear campaign by disgruntled former employees” and interdicts have been obtained against two women who previously worked for Rolkem.
Certificates
When Carte Blanche confronted Kemp about the allegations in July, he showed the production team a certificate of analysis but admitted it didn’t prove the edibility of products.
According to the programme, he later sent more documents that also didn’t refute the allegations. This was accompanied by an application for an urgent interdict against the Carte Blanche broadcast, which failed.
On Monday, after the programme aired, Rolkem published a media statement on Facebook claiming the certificates of analysis do prove there are only food ingredients in the company’s products. There was also a reference to compliance certificates, which, according to Rolkem, show he meets the required standards.
He didn’t, however, post the “proof” on Facebook or send it to the publication as he undertook to do.
Two summary documents of Rolkem’s products were provided, according to which, most of its products are indeed edible except for its Crystals and Glitter Gel ranges.
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