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THE FOOD SAFETY watchdog has advised people to boil imported frozen berries before eating them because of the risk of contracting Hepatitis A.
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) said it was renewing advice originally given last year because contaminated berries may still be circulating in the food chain.
The food poisoning outbreak of the Hepatitis A virus was linked to imported berries and was found in twelve countries across Europe, including Ireland.
There have been several cases of the virus in Ireland this month alone which cannot be explained by travel abroad, and the FSAI said that investigations are under way to see if there could be a link with the berries or other foods.
The outbreak began in May 2013 in Germany. Since then, a total of 1,440 cases of the virus have been reported across twelve countries, including 21 in Ireland.
While there was no single source of contamination, the most common ingredient that all the affected people had eaten was blackberries from Bulgaria and redcurrants from Poland.
Consumers are being advised to boil any frozen berries which come from outside of Ireland for at least one minute before eating them.
Professor Alan Reilly, the head of the FSAI, said the outbreak highlighted just how complex the food chain can be.
“This is a precautionary measure and will destroy the virus if it is present,” he said.
There is no evidence that fresh Irish berries were the cause of the outbreak. However we suggest that – as with all other fruit and vegetables, fresh berries should be washed thoroughly if they are being eaten uncooked.
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A lot of smoothie recipes include frozen berries, surely if they can be such a health risk there should be more stringent testing carried out before they reach the retail chain?
Frozen berries can also have added sugar. I buy fresh fruit from the stalls in town and freeze it for my frozen smoothies :)
Not as dangerous as the most dangerous insect in the world – the hepatitis bee.
Or the most dangerous swimming spot in the world – the hepatitis sea.
I’ll get my coat.
Ha they’re ‘my’ go to jokes….What do you cover the periodic table with? The periodic table cloth..I too, will get my coat.
Or, what do you call a low fat eucharist?
‘I can’t believe it’s not Jesus’
… sorry :(
What’s brown and sounds like a bell?
Dung!
My mate Dave took a leak at the side of the road on Sat. I saw the neighbours picking blackberries in the same location today. Should I put up a boil notice?
Maybe a bowel notice.
This is ongoing since May 2013, surely there should be quality control tests in place long before now. Test per batch. Sounds very badly managed
If this was an irish product being sold else where and a story like this developed, that country would then ban the imports of the product from this country
Another useless quango. You’re far more likely to get hepatitis in coppers than from berries, but where’s the watchdog to warn us about that?
Boylan’s Fruit Farm sell frozen berries in a lot of Irish supermarkets. They are an Irish company and one would assume given the company name that the berries come from their ‘farm’ in Ireland, however no indication on the label where the berries originate from. But I read a post from boards.ie that someone called them to find out and they confirmed the berries are imported.
I contacted Dunnes Stores last year about their berries as they had no origins marked on the packaging – and they said they were foreign.
All packaging should be clearly marked and the supermarkets should be clearly placing warnings on the packaging if there are issues.
I stopped buying them altogether as I don’t trust the supermarkets to label them correctly. Buying fresh fruit, washing them and then freezing them for smoothies is the way to go.
Hello Andrew.
I have read your post on here in relation to our company. I would like to outline our position in the following statement.
The Boil Notice has been put in place by the FSAI as a precautionary measure in response to the (alleged) link between Hep A and frozen fruit. Our position on this is that they are the national body on food safety and we will never tell a member of public to ignore their advice. We can only state our position on what we are doing during this period. We use a combination of both Irish and imported berries to prepare our products. The reason that we use any imported berries is because there is insufficient quantities here in the Irish market to fill the demand on an all year round basis.
We have in place very strict controls for the purchasing of fruits from our suppliers. We know the farms that each fruit is grown, the conditions the fruits are grown under and also the factories where they are processed.
We visit and inspect these farms and factories on an annual basis. For each consignment of fruit that we have in stock we have the following documents a Product Specification Report, Certificate of Analysis, Microbiological Lab Report, Heavy Metals Lab Report, Pesticides Lab Report and more importantly a Hep A Lab Report. Additional Microbiological Testing is also carried out during our own production process here at the factory. All of the Lab testing is carried out by an Independent Certified Laboratory. All of this information is freely available to the FSAI, the Environmental Health Officer and any other of our Customers who wish to view it at anytime.
For the reasons outlined above we have confidence in our fruits and our suppliers and we have the mechanisms in place to offer farm to table traceability. None of our products have been associated with the Hep A problem here in Ireland. The boil notice is in stores is a decision taken by each retail outlet. The boil notice is not on our packaging as after consulting and working closely with the FSAI we are not considered a risk or implicated in the problem.
I hope that the information outlined above has addressed any concerns that you may have.
Kind Regards,
John Boylan
Managing Director
Boylan Fruits Ltd.
Smooties? Are yiz all mad or wah? 4 lb of berries will make a grand gallon of wine [with a bit of extra sugar ]
Better stick to the Maltesers so…
had some in the freezer…threw them out…best to make smoothies with fresh fruit and ice!
What a waste !
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