Australian food company Patties Foods Ltd announced a recall of its frozen berry products on Sunday after a hepatitis A outbreak in a Chinese packaging plant.
Five people fell ill after consuming Nanna's Frozen Mixed Berries sold by Patties Foods; three people were from Victoria and two were from New South Wales. The authorities who investigated the incident pinpointed the Chinese factory where the berries were exported as the source of the outbreak, according to Reuters.
"The particular risk that we've identified here is that a country that has endemic hepatitis A, that is China, has been involved with packing these berries," Finn Romanes, the department's senior medical adviser, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
"Clearly there's strong evidence that there may have been a contamination during the packing process as they are fully sealed and then transported to Australia."
Chinese factories have a reputation of poor sanitation and soil and water pollution, so the contamination might have also happened before the berries were brought to the factory.
The recall covers Nanna's Frozen Mixed Berries and the Creative Gourmet Mixed Berries. All of them were sold in Coles, Woolworths, IGA supermarkets and independent stores, The Guardian reported.
Meanwhile, Patties Foods clarified that the recall does not mean that its products are indeed contaminated. Based on the company's internal investigation, its frozen berries are safe but it announced the recall as a precautionary measure.
"We have moved quickly to recall all our frozen mixed berries until such time as we receive the results of further laboratory tests," chief executive Steven Chaur said in a statement.
Hepatitis A is usually transmitted through person-to-person contact, but it can also be acquired by consuming contaminated water, ice, shellfish, raw fruits, vegetables and other foods. Once infected, it may take 1 to 2 weeks before the symptoms manifest and can cause liver dysfunction.
