Berry import tests ramped up
Health authorities are unsure how many people have eaten tainted Chinese berries at the heart of a nationwide hepatitis A outbreak.
With 13 confirmed cases linked to the contamination scare, including one in WA, Patties Foods boss Steven Chaur defended the company's product safety regime after it recalled Nanna's and Creative Gourmet frozen berries.
Since the first product recall on Friday, it has emerged that Australian regulations require just 5 per cent of imported frozen berries to be screened at the border because they are deemed a low risk food.
But Mr Chaur said though a random sample rather than every berry was tested, products were checked up to four times before they hit Australian shores.
"We test at the farm for items like hepatitis A and norovirus," Mr Chaur told the ABC.
"We test at the production facility for listeria, staphylococcus, e-coli and you know, there's been a lot of talk about faecal matter over the last couple of days in the media and all of our tests through the supply chain into Australia have come up negative on these products."
While thousands of children and nursing home residents are being watched for signs of hepatitis, the Federal and Victorian health departments were unable to say how many people had potentially eaten the berries.
Victoria-based Patties Foods sells about 80,000 packets a week of the recalled products.
Tony Abbott yesterday implied that after an urgent review of screening processes, all frozen berries were being screened in the wake of the recall.
"We have moved to 100 per cent screening of these sorts of imports until this matter is resolved in a way which is very protective of the health of the Australian public," the Prime Minister said.
A spokeswoman for the PM later clarified he was referring just to the berries sold by the brands' owner Patties Foods.
Juice bar chain Boost Juice said its sales were holding up and it was reassuring customers its berries were not affected.
About 70 per cent of its berries are Australian grown and its blueberries come from Canada.
Richard Goyder, managing director of Wesfarmers, Coles' parent company, said Coles would be extending food safety testing of its own brand products to the farms where they were grown.
"We do testing in the factories overseas, but because of this particular incident we'll take our testing further into the field," Mr Goyder said.
