No, Not Another Favourite in Trouble? South African Foods We Never Thought Would Disappear
Please, not another South African favourite.
There are certain products you grow up assuming will simply always be there. They sit in the pantry for decades, appear in school lunchboxes, get packed for holidays and somehow become part of the background of home.
Lucky Star is one of those brands. So recent news about shortages affecting its canned pilchards naturally caught our attention. But before anyone starts panic-buying tins: Lucky Star has not announced that it is being discontinued. The current problem is supply. Owner Oceana Group reported that shortages of frozen fish raw material constrained canned-pilchard availability; Lucky Star's canned-fish sales volumes fell 9% over the 11 months to the end of August 2026, while local canning production fell by roughly 60%.
Lucky Star itself dates the familiar brand to 1959. That's why even a supply problem feels strangely personal: South Africans have seen enough supposedly permanent supermarket favourites disappear to know that iconic does not always mean immortal.
Remember when these South African favourites disappeared?
Some vanished because sales had fallen. Some were casualties of portfolio changes. Some disappeared locally while imported versions survived. And, occasionally, South Africans made enough noise that a favourite found its way back.
1. Nestlé Chocolate Log
For generations, the Chocolate Log was one of those unmistakably South African till-point treats. Then in 2020 Nestlé confirmed that Chocolate Log would not return to shelves from August that year, alongside several other lines including Bar-One Peanut and Milkybar Peanut.
The remarkable part is how long the nostalgia has lasted. Years later, Chocolate Log still appears whenever South Africans start discussing the foods they want back. It is a good example of the gap between sales data and emotional importance: a product can disappear commercially while remaining completely alive in people's memories.
2. Cadbury Tempo
Tempo may be the heavyweight champion of discontinued South African chocolate nostalgia. The caramel-and-biscuit bar disappeared in 2017, yet people are still asking where it went and whether they can find one.
Recent South African community discussions in 2026 still include people asking for Tempo back alongside other vanished favourites. That is nearly a decade of longing for a chocolate bar—a fairly convincing demonstration that supermarket products sometimes become cultural objects without anyone noticing until they are gone.
3. Redro and Peck's Anchovette fish paste
This one caused genuine breakfast-table grief. Pioneer Foods stopped production of Redro and Peck's fish paste in December 2021 as part of a portfolio review. For people raised on hot toast, butter and fish paste, it felt almost absurd that something so familiar could simply disappear.
The reaction also showed how polarising nostalgia can be: some South Africans mourned it; others were delighted to see the back of it. Either way, everybody seemed to have an opinion.
And this story came with an unusual twist: fish paste later returned to South African shelves under new arrangements. Sometimes a disappearance is not forever.
4. Nesquik made its South African exit
In August 2023, Nestlé South Africa discontinued local production of both its chocolate and strawberry Nesquik powders. The reason given was straightforward: declining demand and insufficient sales.
Imported Nesquik can still turn up, so the brand itself did not vanish from the planet. But for South Africans who remember spooning far too much powder into a glass of milk, losing the familiar locally supplied tubs was another small piece of childhood removed from the supermarket aisle.
Interestingly, the nostalgia is still current. A South African Reddit discussion in March 2026 asking for Nesquik back quickly turned into a roll call of other lost favourites: Tempo, Fast Forward and old chocolate treats included.
5. TaB
Long before today's crowded zero-sugar drinks aisle, TaB had its own fiercely loyal following. Coca-Cola ended the brand internationally at the end of 2020 after nearly six decades.
Not everybody loved the taste, but those who did tended to really love it. It remains one of the products regularly mentioned in South African nostalgia lists.
6. Simba Tomato Sauce chips
Sometimes it is not an entire brand that disappears—just the one flavour that somebody considers the only correct flavour.
Simba Tomato Sauce chips have become a recurring example in lists of discontinued South African favourites. It sounds trivial until you ask a group of South Africans about discontinued chip flavours and discover that everyone remembers a different packet they would immediately bring back.
7. Caravan chocolate—and the wonderful possibility of a comeback
Here's the happier side of the story. Nestlé Caravan disappeared years ago, but in September 2026 Checkers brought it back as a limited-edition offering after asking shoppers which discontinued chocolate they wanted to see again.
Caravan was up against other nostalgia-heavy names including Beacon New Look, FFWD and Cadbury 7777.
That tells brands something useful: nostalgia is not merely people talking about the past. Under the right circumstances, it can still create demand today.
Why do we care so much when an ordinary grocery product disappears?
Because it was never only the product.
Tempo might be the chocolate you bought after school. Chocolate Log might remind you of the café at the garage on a family road trip. Fish paste might taste like breakfast at your grandparents' house. Nesquik might be Saturday morning cartoons. Lucky Star might be a meal your mother could always make when the cupboard was nearly empty.
When South Africans move overseas, those associations can become even stronger. Familiar groceries are tiny pieces of continuity. You open a packet or a tin in New Zealand and, for a few minutes, the distance between here and home becomes considerably smaller.
So, is Lucky Star disappearing?
No—not based on the current information. The September 2026 reporting is about raw-material shortages, reduced canned-pilchard availability, lower sales volumes and sharply reduced local canning production. Oceana's overall revenue was reported as broadly in line with the previous year, and the group expects to release its full-year financial results in November.
Lucky Star also says it supplements local fish supply from other fisheries when necessary, which is part of how it manages supply.
So this is not an obituary for Lucky Star. It is simply one of those stories that makes a South African stop and think: surely that one could never disappear?
We've said that before.
And then there is ProNutro...
For Something From Home customers in New Zealand, this story probably sounds familiar. We've already written about why ProNutro has become so difficult to find in New Zealand. Our current Shopify stock for the ProNutro lines we checked is zero, so we are not going to pretend it is available simply to turn this article into a sales pitch.
That's exactly why these stories matter to us. We spend a great deal of time trying to source the products South Africans ask for, and sometimes the answer really is that a once-reliable supply has changed.
Which one would you bring back?
Chocolate Log? Tempo? Redro? Peck's Anchovette? Nesquik? TaB? Tomato Sauce Simba chips? Or something far more obscure that nobody else seems to remember?
If you could bring back just ONE discontinued South African product tomorrow, what would it be?
We're fairly sure the comments could turn into a very long shopping list.
