Calls for stricter food labelling requirements, and to buy local have been spread across the Australian media this week. The recall of Nanna’s 1kg raspberries and mixed berries, and Creative Gourmet 300g and 500g packs of frozen mixed berries, has sparked a flurry of news commentary about the potential for human sewage to be used as fertiliser in other countries.
The fact that the berries in question came from China and Chile was of particular concern. Use of human sewage is unlikely to be the case, however, as Australian food safety experts confirm that suppliers are required to be audited, and that Australia is not the first or only country to experience an outbreak of Hepatitis A from frozen imported berries. “Just like throughout Europe and North America, someone has dropped their guard and this pathogen has slipped through,” says Richard Bennett, Technology Manager for the Produce Marketing Association for Australia and New Zealand (PMA-ANZ).
However website T13.cl reported that ASOEX said the Chilean berries would have most likely been re-packed by Chinese shippers.
“Exports of fresh Chilean blueberries, as well as other berries, are not authorized to enter the Australian market. Therefore, it is impossible that this involves a product sent directly from our country to that market.”
However website T13.cl reported that ASOEX said the Chilean berries would have most likely been re-packed by Chinese shippers.
“Exports of fresh Chilean blueberries, as well as other berries, are not authorized to enter the Australian market. Therefore, it is impossible that this involves a product sent directly from our country to that market.”
“China has its issues in manufacturing and domestic production of food, but there are international food safety standards, and there is an Australian Food Standards Code. Australian food businesses must implement a food safety program, and that applies whether I am a supplier in Shepparton or Shanghai.”
Indeed, the Food Standards Code applies to both imports, domestic production and exports, and does require audits of suppliers to ensure food safety right along the food chain, from the land and soil to the pack houses and delivery systems. The ‘GlobalG.A.P’ international benchmark is also used within China. Further, the Hepatitis A Virus Outbreak from the Fresh Produce Safety Centre confirms that outbreaks are usually the result of ‘short term human error’.
China is also just one of many countries that Australia imports food from where Hepatitis A is endemic, according to Mr Bennett. When outbreaks occur, they are often not traced back to a definitive source either, he notes. “To pinpoint a producer or a pack house or processor may be beyond the ability of the epidemiologists. That’s not a bad thing if you can’t find it. It may mean someone has removed or sanitized that particular pathogen. “
Australian food supplier Patties Foods (the owner of Nanna’s and Creative Gourmet) would not have been taking any chances with its preferred import supplier, according to Mr Bennett, “there’s no second notice here.” The company has since confirmed that it is no longer using the raspberry supplier in question, and its share price has hit a six-week low, in its largest one day fall since 2009 following the news of the outbreak.
Buy local, freeze your own best safety advice
Australian grown berries might be best fresh, but consumers have been given no real choice when it comes to purchasing frozen berries, as local growers find themselves unable to compete on price with berries imported from Asia and Chile. “I would like to think that most consumers appreciate that the fresh Australian berry is grown under appropriate food safety standards,” says Jonathan Eccles, of Raspberries and Blackberries Australia (RABA). “The consumer is expecting a product to be available all year round. They’re not aware of such a thing as seasonality. We can’t compete with overseas countries on supplying frozen berries to the market. However in the last few years we have been able to produce raspberries all year round thanks to new areas being developed.”
In such an environment, both Mr Bennett and Mr Eccles recommend buying local Australian berries, and freezing them at home. This is best done individually at first (on a plate) for a couple of hours, before putting them in zip lock bags so that juice doesn’t leach from the fruit.
The total number of diagnosed cases of Hepatitis A linked to the berries stands at 9, with three in Victoria, Four in Queensland and two in New South Wales, however authorities do expect that number to rise. The virus takes from two to seven weeks to gestate, and symptoms can include nausea, fever and tiredness, and after a few days jaundice (yellow skin) and dark urine. Foodborne illnesses relating to Hepatitis A decreased from 245 circa in 2000, to around 40 in 2010, according to the Fresh Produce Safety Centre’s Frozen Berry Hepatitis A Virus Outbreak Fact Sheet.
For more information
Jonathan Eccles
Raspberries and Blackberries Australia
Phone: +61 407242757
E-mail: jonathan.eccles@raba.com.au
Website: www.raba.com.au
Richard Bennett
Produce Marketing Association for Australia and New Zealand (PMA-ANZ)
Phone: 0429329731
E-mail: r.bennett@pma-anz.com
Website: www.pma-anz.com