New import rules for frozen berries after hepatitis outbreak

New import rules have been set by New Zealand Food Safety for frozen berries to improve processes at the border.

In 2022-2023, an outbreak of hepatitis A was associated with the consumption of frozen berries, which affected 39 people.

In February 2023, Pams recalled 478 bags of frozen berries because of a possible outbreak — part of the same batch which was already recalled in 2022.

It was later found the berries had come from Serbia where the virus could have been transferred from infected people handling the fruit.

Genomic sequencing also matched the berries to a virus outbreak in Sweden.

Speaking today, New Zealand Food Safety deputy director-general Vincent Arbuckle said Aotearoa was among "a number of countries" impacted by the presence of the virus in frozen berries.

“We’ve worked hard to the identify and implement ways to improve food safety rules to better manage the risk to consumers. As part of this we worked closely with major frozen berry importers, who have expressed strong support for the changes.

“New Zealand Food safety’s work to strengthen these requirements was acknowledged in a recent Office of the Auditor-General report into monitoring importers of high-risk foods as ‘robust and in line with international best practice’.”

In a first for New Zealand, the change introduced independent certification to confirm an importer’s food safety systems met New Zealand’s food safety standards.

“This gives us more confidence that risks associated with frozen berries are being managed off-shore before they come to New Zealand,” said Arbuckle.

The changes would come into effect on August 1 and importers had 18 months, or until January 31, 2026, to transition to the new import requirements. "We anticipate that importers will opt take up the system fairly quickly," Arbuckle said.

“Now that the outbreak is over, and affected products have been removed from the shelves, the risk to consumers has reduced. Hepatitis A virus in imported frozen berries, however, remains a potential risk.

“If consumers have concerns or are part of a vulnerable population group, then they can heat-treat frozen berries to over 85C for at least 1 minute,” said Arbuckle.

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