Hepatitis A and managing the risk to Food Safety

What causes Hepatitis A?

The Hepatitis A virus (HAV) causes hepatitis A.

Hepatitis A is a severe food and waterborne disease that is primarily transmitted by the faecal-oral route. In simple terms a food handler with bad personal hygiene, cross-contaminates the food.

What kinds of food pose the most risk?

Food that poses the most risk are:

Contaminated bivalve shellfish, salads, fresh fruits and vegetables, frozen fruit, water and any manually prepared or ready-to-eat food products where a food handler with bad personal hygiene cross contaminated the food. HAV has been known to survive in crème-filled cookies for >1 day at 21ºC.

Poor hygiene practices and poor sanitation are major risk factors. Presymptomatic foodhandlers excreting HAV pose a risk.

In general, food is rarely available for analysis because of the long incubation period. 

A video about Hepatitis A:

Concerned about food in the news?

If you have product at home that is involved with a food re-call, it should be discarded as per government advisories.

Elderly people and those with chronic liver damage were advised to avoid imported frozen berries that had not been heat-treated.

Best practice: People should wash their hands before eating and preparing food.

Anyone who is concerned should briefly boil any frozen berries before eating them, or ensure cooking exceeds 85 degrees Celsius for one minute

What is the brand of product of current concern?

The company is FSL Foods, and the brand being recalled is Fruzio Mixed Berries sold in 1kg and 500 gram bags. This product contains blackberries and strawberries

Source: MPI

What does the product of concern look like? 

What are the scientific facts about Hepatitis A?

Source: MPI

All Food Safe's Basic and Advanced Food Safety Training programmes include training on pathogens including bacteria and viruses such as Hepatitis A, how to monitor the safety of food and record this. Our trainees understand why this is important and get practice in class actually filling out helpful verification records towards these goals.

所有的食品安全的基础食品安全 培训项目包括在新的食品控制计划和日记，如何监督食品安全，并记录了此次培训。作为一名实习生，你就会明白，为什么这些都是重要的并得到实践类实际上填补了这些记录。

Eager to minimise the risk with best practice food safety training?

Book a course online here. Give us a ring on 0800 003 097 or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we will show you how you too can benefit from our highly rated training programmes.

 Codex Alimentarius Guidelines For Hepatitis A Virus (HAV) in Food Manufacture

For the latest on food re-calls in New Zealand visit: MPI 

If you are concerned about a potential risk to your health, or the health of others, you should seek advice from your medical practitioner, or call the Ministry of Health's Healthline – 0800 61 11 16.

If you are concerned about the safety of food products, contact the MPI consumer helpline 0800 00 83 33.

Meaningfully community engagement.

 

Food Safe's goal is to improve food safety best practice at all levels for the benefit of New Zealand as a whole.

Some examples of our engagement efforts include work with, Maraes, the Ministry For Social Development (MSD), community organisations, universities and assisting people and students into jobs.


One such recent and ongoing collaborate training project included the proactive management team at Auckland City Mission. 

Auckland City Mission does great work – offering practical assistance, advocacy and support to individuals and families who have nowhere else to turn. 


Food Safe provided the team at Auckland City Mission, basic food safety training including how to implement a food control plan programme, prevention of cross-contamination and safe handling of food, among other things; so that their staff, volunteers and team leaders can gain a better understanding of food safety risk when caring for people in need, who we are so passionate about.


For more information on how you too can support Auckland City Mission click here.

Food Safe runs regular courses in food safety training and auditing; tailor-made to suit specific business needs. Call us on 0800 003 097 or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  for all food safety training needs.

What is Food Safety Culture?

In simple terms culture is about How, Why and When we practice Food safety 

Why focus on Food Safety Culture?

Several global food safety investigations and reports, that have followed food safety break-downs, such as the Listeria outbreak in USA that killed close to 33 people in 2011 to the E-coli 0104-04 outbreak that killed over 20 people in Germany have recommended that food companies consider tracking and improving Food Safety Culture in addtion to other risk control measures. 

Many of these deaths, food safety scares and food re-calls were preventable if Food Safety Culture was a meaningful focus of food companies and senior managers. 

So what is the challenge?

The challenge for management and food companies in addition to knowledge is, finding an easy-to-use tool to effectively measure Food Safety Culture, so this can be tracked and acted upon.

Is there a specific report related to a New Zealand context?

A report that relates to New Zealand, that specifically details Food Safety Culture and its importance as a lesson for sector-wide improvement is the 'Whey Protein Concentrate Contamination Incident Report' and a page extract from the document, details some of the points below. 

Source: Government of New Zealand

So what influences Food Safety Culture and why measure it? 

Here is a presentation about Food Safe's innovative analysis tool that helps explain what culture means and how a company can and should measure Food Safety Culture.

What the front-end of Food Safe's Analysis Tool looks like?

Eager to know more?

Give us a ring on 0800 003 097 or email us at  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  and we’ll show you how you too can benefit from our world leading tool that can measure Food Safety Culture.

Interested in the full report to better understand context?

What is Food Safety Culture?

In simple terms culture is about How, Why and When we practice Food safety 

Why focus on Food Safety Culture?

Several global food safety investigations and reports, that have followed food safety break-downs, such as the Listeria outbreak in USA that killed close to 33 people in 2011 to the E-coli 0104-04 outbreak that killed over 20 people in Germany have recommended that food companies consider tracking and improving Food Safety Culture in addtion to other risk control measures. 

Many of these deaths, food safety scares and food re-calls were preventable if Food Safety Culture was a meaningful focus of food companies and senior managers. 

So what is the challenge?

The challenge for management and food companies in addition to knowledge is, finding an easy-to-use tool to effectively measure Food Safety Culture, so this can be tracked and acted upon.

Is there a specific report related to a New Zealand context?

A report that relates to New Zealand, that specifically details Food Safety Culture and its importance as a lesson for sector-wide improvement is the 'Whey Protein Concentrate Contamination Incident Report' and a page extract from the document, details some of the points below. 

Source: Government of New Zealand

So what influences Food Safety Culture and why measure it? 

Here is a presentation about Food Safe's innovative analysis tool that helps explain what culture means and how a company can and should measure Food Safety Culture.

What the front-end of Food Safe's Analysis Tool looks like?

Eager to know more?

Give us a ring on 0800 003 097 or email us at  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  and we’ll show you how you too can benefit from our world leading tool that can measure Food Safety Culture.

Interested in the full report to better understand context?

What is Food Safety Culture?

In simple terms culture is about How, Why and When we practice Food safety 

Why focus on Food Safety Culture?

Several global food safety investigations and reports, that have followed food safety break-downs, such as the Listeria outbreak in USA that killed close to 33 people in 2011 to the E-coli 0104-04 outbreak that killed over 20 people in Germany have recommended that food companies consider tracking and improving Food Safety Culture in addtion to other risk control measures. 

Many of these deaths, food safety scares and food re-calls were preventable if Food Safety Culture was a meaningful focus of food companies and senior managers. 

So what is the challenge?

The challenge for management and food companies in addition to knowledge is, finding an easy-to-use tool to effectively measure Food Safety Culture, so this can be tracked and acted upon.

Is there a specific report related to a New Zealand context?

A report that relates to New Zealand, that specifically details Food Safety Culture and its importance as a lesson for sector-wide improvement is the 'Whey Protein Concentrate Contamination Incident Report' and a page extract from the document, details some of the points below. 

Source: Government of New Zealand

So what influences Food Safety Culture and why measure it? 

Here is a presentation about Food Safe's innovative analysis tool that helps explain what culture means and how a company can and should measure Food Safety Culture.

What the front-end of Food Safe's Analysis Tool looks like?

Eager to know more?

Give us a ring on 0800 003 097 or email us at  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  and we’ll show you how you too can benefit from our world leading tool that can measure Food Safety Culture.

Interested in the full report to better understand context?