Irish Encouraged to Boil Frozen Berries

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) today reiterated its advice to consumers to boil all imported frozen berries for at least one minute prior to consumption as it continues its investigation into a food poisoning outbreak of hepatitis A virus. The outbreak is being associated with the consumption of imported frozen berries and to-date, 15 primary cases in Ireland have been identified.

According to Prof. Alan Reilly, Chief Executive, FSAI, boiling imported frozen berries for at least one minute before eating them, is a precautionary measure as it will destroy the virus if it is present.

Cases of hepatitis A in Ireland were identified to have the same strain of the virus that caused the outbreak in Italy. Sense the Italian authorities had detected the virus in samples of frozen mixed berry products imported from a number of different countries, the Irish investigation has focused on imported frozen berries. Since the outbreak was identified, a small number of new cases have been reported and it would be prudent for consumers to boil these berries until further notice. Investigations suggest it is unlikely that fresh Irish or fresh imported berries are a cause of the outbreak. However, we suggest that - as with all other fruit and vegetables - fresh berries should be washed thoroughly if they are being eaten uncooked.”

“Frozen imported berries are widely used in the food industry and distributed into the food service sector for use in cooked and ready-to-eat dishes.  The food sector also needs to take particular care to boil imported frozen berries for at least one minute prior to serving food to customers.“

Hepatitis A is a disease that can be relatively mild, lasting 1-2 weeks, or more, severe lasting months.  Severity of symptoms tends to increase with age. The most common symptoms are fever, loss of appetite, nausea, fatigue and abdominal pain, followed within a few days by jaundice. The incubation period (time from exposure to onset of illness) ranges from 15 to 50 days, the average being 28 days.

Because of the long incubation period of hepatitis A, where illness can arise up to 50 days after exposure to the virus, the food histories obtained for patients over that long period do not have sufficient detail to enable the authorities to identify specific batches of imported frozen berries and this coupled with the complexity of the global frozen fruit distribution chain has hindered identification of the source of the outbreak.