National hepatitis A response planned, but changes to food labelling rejected

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Patties Foods mixed berries
A 1kg bag of Nanna’s Mixed frozen Berries. Patties Foods Ltd issued a recall of the product due to potential Hepatitis A contamination.

The federal government is co-ordinating a national response to the hepatitis A outbreak linked to frozen berries as the health department braces for more cases due to an incubation period of up to seven weeks.

But Tony Abbott has rejected a complete crackdown on food testing and labelling in response to the hepatitis A outbreak from imported berries, saying it was the responsibility of business “not to poison their customers”.

As of midday Wednesday, there are now 13 cases of the disease, while children at nine South Australian primary schools and childcare centres may have been served frozen berries from the recalled batches.

The chief education officer at South Australia’s Department of Education and Child Development, Jayne Johnston, said that although SA Health advice suggested the infection risk was low, the facilities were taking a cautious approach.

“Parents will be understandably concerned to receive the letter, but I would like to emphasise that SA Health advises that the risk is considered to be quite low and the product recall was being undertaken as a precaution,” she said in a statement on Wednesday.

Some students at a Victorian high school also consumed the berries after using them to make smoothies during a cooking class.

The Ballarat Secondary College year seven students used the berries in a food technology class last week, before the product was recalled, the principal, Rick Gervasoni, said.

None have tested positive for the virus, which can take between 15 to 50 days to develop.

Chief medical officer, Chris Baggoley, said there had been three cases in Victoria; four in New South Wales, five in Queensland and one in Western Australia. However it said it was important to keep the outbreak in perspective and understand that full recovery was the norm.

“Very conservatively it is up to one in 100 who consume these berries would get a hepatitis A infection,” he said.

Liberal MP for Murray, Sharman Stone, who fought for the Australian fruit processor SPC Ardmona, called the outbreak a “wake-up call” for Australia and urged the federal government to implement stronger action to stop future outbreaks.

Stone said Australia’s food regulations imposed a “double standard” for local and overseas producers. She called for transparent country-of-origin labelling and more rigorous food testing for imported goods to meet national standards.

The agriculture minister, Barnaby Joyce, said the government was considering a review of testing on imports under Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) as another case of hepatitis A was discovered, the first in Western Australia. His department wrote to the Chinese government to ask for assurances on the food testing measures.

Raspberries appear to be a potential common link in the imported fruit contamination. Eleven Australians have now been diagnosed with hepatitis A, apparently as a result of eating the frozen fruit.

WA Health’s epidemiologist, Dr Gary Dowse, announced the latest case on Wednesday, saying he expected more could arise.

“We now have a person in WA who has hepatitis A and clearly is linked to the consumption of these berries,” he said.

But the prime minister said he had to respect people’s “financial health as well as other aspects of their health”.

“The bottom line is that companies shouldn’t poison their customers,” he said.

“Businesses have an obligation to do the right thing by their customers. They have an obligation to ensure the product they sell is safe, and obviously in some cases that hasn’t been the case.

“We are certainly looking at what we can do to toughen up screening but we also need to look to business to lift its game here.”

Abbott said he was aware of the labelling issue as he had checked his fridge and pantry and was surprised at how many items were marked as having Australian and imported ingredients.

However, he said reputable businesses would not want to sell products that made people sick and additional regulations would increase prices for food “unreasonably”.

“The last thing I want to do is put a whole lot of additional requirements on business that will make their life very, very difficult and will raise unreasonably prices to consumers because everything we do in this area has a cost.”

Asked if he was prepared to “allow more Australians to get sick” in order not to impose more costs on business, Abbott said: “No, we will do our job.”

But Stone contradicted Abbott, calling for products to be much better tested when they enter the country.

Stone said food regulators should be required to frequently test products, enforce faster recalls and include country-of-origin labelling. It was vital the contaminated food products were disposed of properly, rather than “just being dumped in a landfill”.

“All [regulators] currently do is test the first five samples of a product and companies know that and just make sure the first batches are clean,” she said.

“This is a wake-up call for Australia. This involves faecal contamination from water or food grown in contaminated soil and water. Meanwhile Australian growers have to adhere to scrupulous regulations and inspections. We have an incredible double standard.”

She said the campaign to save SPC Ardmona as an Australian food processor showed that it was a “furphy” that Australian consumers would not pay more for quality homegrown food.

“It is a myth that Australians always go for the cheapest price. They are sophisticated when they have full access to the information,” she said.

“We should not be giving an imported food company a holiday on testing – it has to be highly likely that a product will be checked.”

Food Standards Australia and New Zealand determine whether a product is high or low risk before making a recommendation to the Department of Agriculture. All high-risk products are tested but only 5% of low-risk ones are.

Joyce said low-risk products were “predominantly” tested for cadmium.

“If there is a reason for something to go from low-risk to high-risk then the health ministers get together and change the requirements for that and increase the surveillance that they ask the Department of Agriculture then to undertake,” he said.

“I want to make sure that people can clearly identify when I go to the shop an Australian, a genuine Australian product, because we do have stronger sanitary laws, we do have stronger oversight to make sure we have a cleaner, greener product than what comes in from overseas.”

The parent company, Patties, issued a nationwide voluntary recall on Friday 13 February and a subsequent precautionary recall on Sunday of Creative Gourmet Mixed Berries (300g and 500g packs) and on Monday of Nanna’s brand frozen raspberries 1kg, which are not associated with illness but are packed in the same factory.

The Greens leader, Christine Milne, introduced a food labelling bill to parliament last week which would ensure labels listed where the product was grown, where it was manufactured and where it was packaged.

“We have people being diagnosed with hepatitis A from eating contaminated imported food, and we have people saying they don’t know how to tell if they’re buying Australian food. Let’s fix the system,” said Milne.

The health department advice on hepatitis A is that most people recover with rest and fluids. However, it may cause severe illness in young children, older people and in immunosuppressed people.

Hepatitis A is spread via food and water, including ice that is contaminated with faecal matter from infected people. Practicing good hand hygiene and avoiding food preparation while ill are the most important factors in preventing further cases.