According to a food safety expert from Australia, contaminated frozen berries from China should push the food industry to follow the safety regulations more carefully.

According to Richard Bennett, technology manager with Fresh Produce Safety Centre, hepatitis A contamination was not common, but recently it had been found in frozen berries in Italy, Scandinavia, Ireland and North America. The virus has also been found previously in raspberries and semi-dried tomatoes.

As per Mr. Bennett, local companies should have taken care that it didn’t pose threat to consumers. "It's the responsibility of businesses to assess the risk of any food product, whether it's produced in Australia, or imported from overseas”, he said.

Bennett said that Hepatitis A usually spreads because of faecal contamination and poor hygiene generally by workers. He added that no proof was there that the contamination was caused by human waste being used on berry farms as fertilizer.

As per Bennett, bio-solids are banned in a large number of quality assurance programs. And a company which imports products and supplies major retailers, needs to comply with retailers’ quality assurance requirements, he added. It will definitely stop the use of human waste and bio-solids, said Bennett.