The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday said it has asked Costco to submit a full report on food contamination issues by May 31 after a package of frozen strawberries carried by the retailer tested positive for the hepatitis A virus
The FDA said that a package of Costco’s frozen strawberries from Mexico had tested positive for the hepatitis A virus. The first contaminated package was found in mixed frozen berries from Chile last month and the second one was detected on May 1.
Sales of the frozen strawberries have been suspended since April 30, but 1,513 of the 1,546 bags from that batch had already been sold when the product was pulled from the shelves and sampled for testing, the FDA said.
Photo: CNA
The retailer had submitted a preliminary investigation report on Wednesday last week, but it failed to clarify the cause of the contamination, FDA Deputy Director Lin Chin-fu (林金富) said.
As the agency was not satisfied with the report, it ordered the retailer to submit a full investigation report by May 31, or else its import of frozen berry products would continue to be suspended, he said.
As of Tuesday, Costco’s branches in Taiwan had recalled a total of 49,168.32kg of frozen berries: 24,089.54kg of Kirkland Signature Three Berry Blend, 1,402.64kg of its Kirkland Signature Grade A Fancy Strawberries and 23,676.14kg of Kirkland Signature Whole Blueberries, FDA Southern Center Director Wei Jen-ting (魏任廷) said.
Meanwhile, the CDC yesterday said that a report of a suspected case of acute hepatitis A infection who had consumed Costco’s frozen berries came back negative.
After the suspected case was first reported to the CDC, the local health department arranged for the person to get another test for confirmation.
CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said the case is a Tainan woman in her 50s who had purchased Costco’s Kirkland Signature Whole Blueberries in late March and consumed them early last month.
The woman reported experiencing fatigue and abdominal discomfort, so she underwent a hepatitis A antibody test on Saturday, which came back weak-positive for IgM antibodies.
Her case was reported by the testing facility to the CDC, Lo said.
However, a second test arranged by the local health department came back negative, Lo said.
So far, six suspected cases of hepatitis A from consuming Costco’s frozen berries were all confirmed to be negative, he said.
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