Pomegranate blamed for seven NSW Hepatitis A cases

IMPORTED frozen pomegranate sold at Coles supermarkets is believed to have caused seven cases of hepatitis A in NSW.

The supplier of imported product thought to be responsible is recalling a “relatively small batch” as a precaution.

NSW Health on Friday night warned anyone who’s bought the frozen fruit from Coles not to eat it.

Entyce Food Ingredients on Saturday issued a statement identifying the potential culprit as Creative Gourmet Frozen Pomegranate (180g) with a best before date up to and including March 21, 2020.

“Consumers can be confident that the recalled product Creative Gourmet Frozen Pomegranate Arils 180g is an isolated one and no other Creative Gourmet products are affected,” it said in the statement.

“The recall affects less than one per cent of the Creative Gourmet fruit sold annually in Australia.” The company was also eager to point out the cases were yet to be directly linked to Entyce products and all product tested to date had been cleared. Coles issued an apology to those affected.

“Customers can return the product to Coles supermarkets for a full refund,” a spokesman said in a statement.

“Any consumers concerned about their health should seek medical advice.”

Genetic testing of the patients, who are based in Sydney, Wollongong and the Central Coast, identified a unique strain of the infection.

Hepatitis A symptoms can take up to 50 days to develop and include nausea, vomiting, fever and a yellowing of the skin, NSW Health’s Dr Vicky Sheppeard says.

“In most people the symptoms resolve after a few weeks with supportive treatment, mainly rest and fluids,” she said in a statement. Australian-grown pomegranate — both fresh and frozen — has not been implicated.

Health authorities are working with interstate counterparts to work out whether there have been locally-acquired cases elsewhere.

The warning comes just weeks after consumers were advised against eating rockmelon from certain sources after six deaths were linked to an outbreak of listeria from consuming the fruit.

Rockmelons began to reappear on some Australian supermarket shelves in March — nearly a month after the fruit was linked to the deadly outbreak.