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Berry bad for business: Patties CEO says lack of Hep A testing capability a concern

Patties foods faced a number of difficulties after it was forced to recall a line of frozen berries which were believed to be contaminated with Hepatitis A.

Initially trying to isolate the cause of the suspected contamination, and identifying Hepatitis at all proved difficult, as Australia had typically categorised the risk as quite low, and did not have rigorous testing for Hep A in place.

Patties CEO Steven Chaur claimed that the incident wiped up to $50 million off the value of the frozen berry market, as the image of frozen berries across all brands had taken a huge hit, with growth slowing from around 40% per annum to just 14%.

The full article is here.