Lucky: Brian and Bootz Whyte, whose two-year-old daughter, Harper, attends SDN Pyrmont. Photo: Peter Braig
About 40 youngsters at a Sydney childcare centre have been fed frozen berries potentially contaminated with hepatitis A for the past half-year, and worried parents are now on the lookout for symptoms of the disease.
SDN Children’s Education and Care Centre in Pyrmont has served Nanna’s mixed frozen berries since September last year.
A worried parent said fruit pieces were scattered on muffins and yoghurt,
The first Patties Foods frozen berry recall was issued on Friday. As the recall was extended and hepatitis A cases grew nationally on Monday, the childcare service sent an email to parents saying it had served the berries every Wednesday.
The service is among thousands of school and childcare centres across the country urging parents to be vigilant about symptoms in their children.
While not life-threatening, hepatitis A may cause severe illness in young children, older people and immunosuppressed people, the federal health department says. Symptoms of infection may not emerge for seven weeks because of the virus’s lengthy incubation period.
Ginie Udy, chief executive officer of SDN Children’s Service, which operates 25 centres in NSW, said only the Pyrmont centre had served the now-recalled berries.
“We innocently purchased the goods, as well as the community. We all did. We haven’t had any parents contact us, but we will keep monitoring the situation, of course,” she said.
“We’re joining with the rest of the community in being concerned, alert, and responding promptly.”
Brian and Bootz Whyte, parents of two-year-old Harper, who goes to the SDN centre in Pyrmont, said theywere lucky the recalled berries were served only every Wednesday, and not Friday when Harper attends.
Mr Whyte said he was the only one to eat Nanna’s frozen mixed berries at home.
Mrs Whyte conceded it was now hard to avoid consuming China-made products.
“It’s the convenience of it. China is one of the biggest producers in the world, and it’s a price-driven thing, too,” she said.
Nesha O’Neil, president of Child Care New South Wales, the peak body for privately owned centres, said no members had raised any berry-related issues with the organisation.
“The NSW Department of Education and Community sent out an alert about the recall and what to do,” she said.
“All childcare centres will keep a record of what ingredients they’ve used for the past several weeks. We have to do it for allergy reasons.”
Hepatitis A symptoms include feeling unwell, aches and pains, fever, nausea, lack of appetite and abdominal discomfort, followed by dark urine, pale stools and jaundice.
In Queensland, Trinity Beach State School in Cairns has released a newsletter telling parents the school’s canteen used Nanna’s mixed berries to make smoothies for students.
The products have been disposed of and a list of symptoms has been distributed to parents.
In Victoria, 48 government schools have advised the education department that some of their students had consumed the berries.
On Wednesday, a South Australian childcare centre feared it had served smoothies with recalled berries as an afternoon snack, the ABC reported.
It is one of nine schools and childcare centres in the state that notified parents about the potential health risk.
There were 14 victims of the outbreak: five each in NSW and Queensland, three in Victoria, and one in Western Australia.
The four recalled products – one-kilogram packs of Nanna’s raspberries and frozen mixed berries, as well as 300-gram and 500-gram packs of Creative Gourmet nixed berries – were sourced and packed mainly in China.
With Darren Gray
Do you know more? ehan@fairfaxmedia.com.au