NOV and HAV in Berries

Foodborne virus, Hepatitis A Virus and Norovirus, are often the source of large outbreaks associated with berries, from many origins. ECDC published in 2015 a historical perspective on Food-borne diseases associated with frozen berries consumption; The review revealed 32 independent events (i.e. outbreak, food contamination) in the period 1983–2013, of which 26 were reported after 2004.

Since then (2015/2016/2017), many other outbreaks occurred. The last 2017 Australian outbreak with berries imported reminds us of the importance of

1. Good Agricultural Practice,
2. Good Hygiene Practice
3. Good Manufacturing Practice

and adapted controls in HACCP plans for monitoring foodborne Viruses as highlighted by FAO

1983 : 24 cases with raspberry mousse

One of the very first publication describing an Hepatitis A Virus outbreak in Aberdeen, UK with raspberries

2012 : 11000 cases of norovirus in Germany  associated with strawberries

2013 : 1440 hepatitis A cases have been reported in 12 European countries

2013 : Oubreak of HAV in Italy with frozen redcurrants

2015 : 162 hepatitis A cases in a multi-state outbreak in the US

2016 : 143 cases with Frozen strawberries contaminated with HAV

2017 : Frozen berries linked to HAV outbeak in Australia

EU Regulation (EC) 669/2009 and Norovirus

Raspberries from Serbia are under scrutiny from the authorities in Europe.

ISO/TS 15216-1:2013 - Horizontal method for determination of hepatitis A virus and norovirus in food using real-time RT-PCR

RASFF 2017 Foodborne Virus Alerts

Sources :

• CDC https://www.cdc.gov/
• ECDC http://ecdc.europa.eu/
• EFSA http://www.efsa.europa.eu/
• PubMed https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
• ISO https://www.iso.org/home.html
• FoodQualityNews http://www.foodqualitynews.com/
• Springer https://rd.springer.com
• FAO http://www.fao.org