At least 80 babies have died in South Africa after authorities confirmed on Friday that an outbreak of listeria has killed more than 200 people.

The worst outbreak of the food-borne disease in recorded global history has been traced to contaminated cold meat produced at a food processing plant owned by South Africa’s largest food company, Tiger Brands.

More than 1,000 people have contracted listeriosis, caused by the listeria bacteria, since January last year, although South Africa’s health ministry insisted on Friday that the outbreak was now being brought under control.

Amid mounting panic over the spread of the disease, which is notoriously hard to control, countries across Africa have banned the import of processed meats from South Africa.

An investigation prompted by the rapid rise of confirmed listeriosis cases in December finally located the source of the outbreak to a contaminated batch of “polony” sausage meat at a production facility in Polokwane, 185 miles northeast of Pretoria.

The facility is owned by Enterprise Foods, a subsidiary of Tiger Brands, the South African food giant that is now facing a class action lawsuit.

The South African government said that all food products that were at risk of contamination had been recalled and destroyed.