We’re no strangers to seeing food recalls as a result of imported, frozen berries being contaminated with viruses and bacteria such as:
- Hepatitis A virus
- Norovirus
- Shiga toxin-producing E. coli
- Salmonella
FSANZ has developed food safety standards that keep berries that are grown in Australia or New Zealand safe to consume, and free of pathogens. But some other countries that produce and process food such as berries do not have the same standards or compliance levels in place.
Looking at the most common sources of contamination for Hepatitis A:
- food is grown in contaminated water or soil
- produce picked or packed by a person infected with hepatitis A
- produce washed in contaminated water
Equipment and workers can contaminate berries after they are harvested. The bugs can be spread during freezing, mixing, or packaging. This can make the berries unsafe to eat. The virus can survive for several hours outside of the body and can persist on people’s hands and in food.
There are 4 things food businesses can do to minimise the risk of yet another hepatitis outbreak of frozen berries:
- As a company, you need to learn from yours and other company’s mistakes and continually improve
- Traceability and knowledge of your supply chain and distribution networks are paramount
- If you are producing a product with a raw material, it needs to be fit for purpose and have a robust specification
- Your HACCP plan and risk assessment for food safety should cover all risks
As a company, learn from your mistakes, and your competitors mistakes.
1. Learn From Mistakes
It is easier to learn from someone else’s mistake. It costs you nothing as it is basically free advice. But in order to learn, you must follow the learnings and implement them. If you follow the adage that you need to make mistakes yourself in order to learn, then that can be a costly and damaging thing before you get better.
2. Traceability and Knowing Your Supply Chain
Supply chains can be complex. And some markets and supply chains are higher risk than others. While you may be comfortable with your internal traceability controls your external visibility may not be as robust. We never, as food producers want anything to go wrong. But we must be prepared for the worst to happen. Because if it does go wrong, it could in the worst of circumstances save lives.
There is no excuse for this type of organism entering the food chain if the GMP controls are robust.
3. Are Your Ingredients Fit for Purpose?
This particular issue covers two levels of contamination. Firstly, with a directly purchased frozen fruit. And secondly, a cake that has been manufactured containing a contaminated raw material with use of that fruit.
If you are making a value-added product, you need to have control of your raw materials. Having a specification is not enough if it doesn’t cover the risk factors and the safe levels of micro contamination that you are looking for.
4. Does Your HACCP Plan Cover All Risks?
This particular Hepatitis A outbreak covers two levels of contamination. Firstly, with a directly purchased frozen fruit. And secondly, a strawberry cake that has been manufactured containing the contaminated raw material (strawberry).
If you’re making a value-added product, you need to have control of your raw materials. Having a product specification isn’t enough if it doesn’t cover the risk factors and the safe levels of micro contamination that you are looking for.
This particular issue covers two levels of contamination. Firstly, with a directly purchased frozen fruit. And secondly, a cake that has been manufactured containing a contaminated raw material with use of that fruit.
If you are making a value-added product, you need to have control of your raw materials. Having a specification is not enough if it doesn’t cover the risk factors and the safe levels of micro contamination that you are looking for.
