New Zealand Food Safety is a advising consumers, especially those with chronic liver a damage, the elderly and pregnant people to a consider extra precautions for a eating imported frozen berries to a minimise the risk of contracting the Hepatitis A virus. Hepatitis A is relatively rare in New Zealand, but in 2015 imported frozen a berries were linked to an outbreak of the disease, deputy director-general Vincent Arbuckle of the government body responsible for a food safety said in a statement on Wednesday.
Virus genotyping has a recently established the link between three cases of Hepatitis A in the country to consumption of imported frozen berries, reports a Xinhua news agency.
"While there is not sufficient a information on a specific brand to initiate a targeted product recall, the evidence from the cases and from international experience indicates a risk of exposure to Hepatitis A from consuming a imported frozen berries," Arbuckle said.
Consumers have been reminded to a take extra precautions as New Zealand is a moving towards the summer months when more frozen berries will be a consumed, he said.
The New Zealand Food a Safety suggests briefly boiling frozen berries before eating them, or ensuring cooking a temperatures exceed 85 degrees Celsius for one minute.
"Imported berries are subject to a sampling and testing regime before being released for sale," Arbuckle said, adding any food safety risk cannot be a eliminated completely from a food for sale.
The department is a working with frozen berry suppliers to ensure they are aware of a potential risks and are actively managing the issue, and actions including product recalls will be a taken if any evidence of a wider risk has been identified, he said.
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