The Patties frozen berry scandal has claimed more victims, with another four confirmed cases of hepatitis A arising over the weekend, taking the total recorded cases to 18.
Hepatitis A is contracted via contact with material that has been contaminated with faeces from an infected person, with frozen berries imported from China the most likely culprit.
The scandal continues to shine a spotlight on Australia’s food safety regime, with The Australian today revealing that testing on imported foods for dangerous microbes have been wound back in recent years, and are yet to apply to frozen berries, despite more than one in 60 samples failing to meet health standards:
Department of Agriculture statistics show the number of microbiological tests on imported food is at its lowest since 2009-10…
Department results show an average of 200 samples a year or 1.7 per cent of foods tested contain more than the permitted levels of E. coli, salmonella, listeria, bacillus or strains of the bacteria that cause cholera and golden staph.
Infected foods include processed meat, ready-to-eat seafood, cooked prawns, tofu, dried coconut, pepper, sesame seeds and cheese…
Frozen berries are not tested for microorganisms because they are not considered a risk…
Australia’s deficient country-of-origin labeling laws have also garnered more scrutiny, with consumer group Choice testing 55 packs of frozen mixed fruits and mixed vegetables and finding that nearly half of the labels on the packs had “vague” or “unhelpful” information:
Choice said some of the worst claims included “Packed in New Zealand”, “Packed in Chile from imported and local ingredients” and “Processed in Belgium”.
It also found 12 per cent of its 700 members were not able to understand the meaning of “Made in Australia”.
“These claims offer very little information about a product’s origin and are largely meaningless to consumers,” Choice spokesman Tom Godfrey said…
Under current laws, the term “made from Australian and imported ingredients” is common, providing no detail on the exact origins of all the ingredients in a product or where it was packaged.
Thankfully, Agriculture Minister, Barnaby Joyce, has called for a comprehensive review of food standards, more testing of food imports, and better country-of-origin labeling, and expects to bring a white paper on potential legislative changes to Cabinet shortly.
Let’s hope for meaningful changes in this area before more Australians get sick, and before more local food producers are unfairly driven out of business by low quality imports purchased by unsuspecting consumers.
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