Patties Foods says its own tests on recalled berry products linked to the recent Hepatitis A Virus (HAV) outbreak have come up negative.
Patties Foods sent approximately 360 packs of frozen berries for HAV testing at laboratories in Europe, North America and Australia.
The Victorian Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), however, tested two opened sample packs recovered from consumers who had contracted HAV and in one of these samples tested positive for HAV, though the sample was from an opened packet and may have been open to contamination.
The DHHS also tested eight random sample packs purchased from supermarkets including in Victoria and detected a trace amount of HAV in one sample, though it said quantification at such low levels was not precise.
Patties says that its own negative test results, however, showed there was no systemic quality failure.
“If our Nanna’s product was the source, the lack of laboratory findings from the testing conducted by Patties Foods for the presence of E.coli, Coliforms or HAV indicates there has been no systemic failure. Regardless, Patties Foods has significantly increased protection measures to ensure that any risk is further minimised in future,” Patties Foods MD & CEO Steven Chaur said.
“Our microbiological and viral testing does not confirm any link between Nanna’s Mixed Berries and HAV. However, we are guided by the epidemiology provided by the DHHS and accordingly have taken proactive and collaborative measures to ensure public safety,”.
Nanna’s brand Mixed Berries 1kg products remain out of the market until further notice while Patties Foods evaluates alternative sources of supply.
The company said it has recently recommenced supply of all its non-recalled Nanna’s and Creative Gourmet berries varieties, other than Mixed Berries, back onto the Australian supermarket shelves under a ‘positive release’ regime for every batch, only after local external laboratory tests for both E.coli and HAV confirm the product is negative to these markers.
“Since the potential link between our products and HAV was first notified, we have recalled all potential source product, ceased importing from possible sources of the potential contamination, and increased our testing regime to 100 per cent of all containers of our imported frozen berries from all countries, not just China,” said Chaur.
“Nanna’s and Creative Gourmet brand berries are amongst the most rigorously microbiologically tested berries now sold in the market.”
