Creative Gourmet frozen berries are being taken off shelves across Australia after another hepatitis A scare hit the brand.
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The food safety regulator issued the "precautionary" recall on Friday, asking anyone who had bought the Creative Gourmet Frozen Mixed Berries 300-gram product with a best-before date before January 15, 2021 to return it immediately to the supermarket for a refund.
The product was recalled after health authorities made a potential link between four new hepatitis A cases - including one in Victoria - and the berries.
About 45,000 packets of the berries are affected. The berries were sourced from Canada and China and packed in Australia.
The product was sold at a range of independent supermarkets across Australia including IGA, Foodworks, Foodland, SPAR and Supabarn.
Creative Gourmet mixed frozen berries were recalled in 2015 after being linked to a separate hepatitis outbreak.
The brand was sold by its owner, Bairnsdale-based Patties Foods, to Entyce later that year.
A spokesman for Entyce said a packet was tested by the Victorian Health Department on Friday, but no traces of the virus were found.
"Consumers can be confident that the recalled batch of Creative Gourmet Mixed Berries 300g is an isolated one and the recalled batch is no longer available on supermarket shelves," the spokesman said.
Hepatitis A is a short-term, but quite serious infection of the liver. Symptoms include fever, nausea and abdominal pain. But while the infection can be quite severe, it is rarely deadly and most sufferers make a quick recovery.
The infection generally takes between 15 and 50 days to develop after consuming a contaminated product. About 300 to 500 people are diagnosed with hepatitis A in Australia every year.\
This article first appeared on Brisbane Times.
