Responsible lending practices

Woolworths has consciously defined responsible lending practices in terms of the financial services offering. Affordability in credit vetting and extension, and unsolicited lending, are embedded in Woolworths’ financial services policies and procedures. No formal policy exists regarding consumer privacy, beyond current legal compliance, but this will be addressed as part of compliance with the pending Consumer Protection Bill.

Product safety

Woolworths is committed to maintaining the highest possible levels of product safety throughout the business. Product recall procedures are entrenched in business policy and procedures.

Some of the key product safety initiatives include:

• General: supplying the Red Cross Children’s Hospital Poisons Information Centre with the formulations of all toiletry products and the Poisons Information Centre telephone number printed on the packaging; and working closely with The Child Accident Prevention Foundation of Southern Africa (CAPFSA) to address issues of safety and taking precautionary action wherever possible; and wherever possible, eliminating rigid PVC’s from packaging.
• Safer clothing: Woolworths’ unique metal detection policy requires our suppliers of childrenswear, soft toys, and men’s and ladies’ intimatewear (with the exception of bras, which use metal hooks, sliders and underwires), to scan all manufactured items to reduce the risk of injuries from broken pins and needles; where possible natural rubber latex (which may cause an allergic reaction) has been removed from all our garments and replaced with dry natural rubber, which has a low level of residual protein; no azo dyes are used in the production of our textiles, as they are associated with numerous health and environmental risks; and in children’s garments and toys; all metal trims are nickel free as they can trigger allergic reactions; reflective signage is incorporated in all school shoes, anoraks and school bags for children’s safety; all toys are tested against an international toy safety standard; all batteries are encased with a screw to prevent infants from choking; all cords on garments, like anoraks, are security tacked and the cord length is limited to 14 cm to reduce the chances of accidental strangulation; and all buttons on childrens’ clothing are lockstitched to reduce the risk of choking.

Food safety

Food safety is critical to the business and mechanisms are in place to ensure that consumers are offered product which has undergone thorough testing and rigid process control to ensure it is as safe as possible.

Woolworths uses a number of independent food laboratories to run routine checks for any potentially harmful micro-organisms and pathogens. The labs also monitor pesticide residue levels on fresh produce and heavy metal levels in fresh fish. In addition Woolworths uses an independent audit firm to monitor hygiene levels in stores.

product labelling

Woolworths’ labelling policy ensures that customers are given sufficient accurate information to allow them to make informed buying decisions. Woolworths’ clothing is now fully compliant with government requirements in terms of labelling which, in addition to country of origin, require details of fibre content and care instructions plus the importer’s code for imported lines or the manufacturer’s taxpayer number for local goods. All Woolworths’ food labels contain detailed information on ingredients, nutritional values and allergens. Sugar content is listed in addition to the usual total energy, total protein, total carbohydrate, full breakdown of fatty acids and sodium (salt).