People who have consumed frozen berries, especially parents of children who have consumed them, have been very worried after they were linked to Hepatitis A. Fortunately, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has made significant progress in its investigation. “Today we have directed a specific company to recall a brand of imported frozen berries from shelves,” says MPI’s director of plants, food and the environment, Peter Thomson. “The company is FSL Foods, and the brand
being recalled is
sold in one kilogram and 500 gram bags. This product contains blackberries and strawberries.
“If you have this product at home it should be discarded.
“Our investigation is ongoing and, at this stage, our advice concerning all imported frozen berries stays the same. We are not able to rule out further recalls.
“We thank FSL Foods for its full cooperation in this recall.
“This is an evolving and complex situation and we were able to reach this conclusion today because of new genetic evidence about the virus and a continuing examination of the supply chain.
“In the meantime the general advice about food safety applies. People should wash their hands before eating and preparing food. Anyone who is concerned should briefly boil any frozen berries before eating them, or ensure cooking exceeds 85 degrees Celsius for one minute.
“Elderly persons and those with chronic liver damage should avoid imported frozen berries that have not been heat treated.”
John Brooks, a consultant microbiologist at Microtech Services, said the problem would have arisen as a result of contamination with faeces during handling, either from an infected food handler or from the use of human waste either in field irrigation or from faecally contaminated water used in processing. The virus can take up to 50 days to cause symptoms in consumers, making it hard to pinpoint, with only four cases of infection to date and taking into account the large volume of frozen imported berries from China, Chile, Canada and other countries.
Before this announcement MPI director-general Martyn Dunne and deputies Scott Gallacher and Deborah Roche appeared before the primary production select committee for the ministry’s annual review and were questioned by Labour’s food safety spokesman Damien O’Connor and Green MP Stefan Browning on why no brands or countries of origin for contaminated frozen berries had been identified yet. Australia had at least 28 cases of Hepatitis A that were tied to brands of frozen berries imported from China. Gallacher said the two countries shared a lot of information after Australia was able to identify both the strain of the virus and a specific brand, and NZ officials did “due diligence” to ensure that brand was not supplying NZ and “hasn’t been to this day.” Information sharing has been improved via agreements and the shared Food Standards Australia NZ body that straddles the two countries.
The officials were also questioned about footage shown on Television NZ’s Sunday show of cruel treatment of bobby calves, the unwanted offspring of cows that can then be milked. Dunne said the ministry had been alerted to video footage in September, had visited the site and had an open investigation, which was widened when the latest footage came to light. Prosecutions were possible down the track and the ministry was treading carefully given some of the sensitivities, including that the footage was taken secretly with hidden cameras by animal advocacy groups Farmwatch and SAFE.
Dunne also said a major campaign would get under way this week, nationally and possibly internationally, “to correct some of the language” used in reporting the cruelty to the calves, which only involved “the behaviour of a few”.
O’Connor, who has a boysenberry farm at Motueka, asked whether MPI’s response amounted to a “PR campaign”.
Asked after the meeting whether there were any issues for MPI in needing to protect the reputation of NZ as a producer of high-quality foods and its role in ensuring food safety and animal welfare, Gallacher said: “We’re aware of reputational impact and we will take that into account” but there was no confusion of roles.