Patties Foods, the same company that was embroiled in a food safety scandal over contaminated frozen berries in 2015, has again recalled product over potential links to a Hepatitis A outbreak that has so far affected four people. 

On Friday, Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) alerted consumers to return or dispose of Creative Gourmet frozen mixed berries 300gm packs with a best before date of Jan. 15, 2021.

While FSANZ said consumers shouldn't be concerned about other frozen berry brands or batches of Creative Gourmet product, Patties voluntarily recalled a range of other products as a precautionary measure.

The list of items and their origins can be found here. 

FSANZ emphasized the berries in question were imported in early 2015, claiming there was no evidence of cases of hepatitis A associated with imported berries since border controls were put in place in February 2015.

"The Victorian Department of Health and Human Services is working with the supplier who has advised that all frozen berry products are tested before distribution for hepatitis A, E. coli and coliforms and that no tests to date have returned a positive result," FSANZ acting CEO CEO Glen Neal said in a release.

Since then however, Fairfax Media has reported the frozen berries recalled were understood to have been from the same shipment of fruit from China that caused the outbreak in 2015.

"We understand the batch of frozen berries at the centre of this [current] recall were sourced from the same plant and area in China at around the same time as the berries responsible for the 2015 recall," a spokesman from the Department of Health and Human Services in Victoria was quoted as saying.

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