The Valencian Farmers Association (AVA-Asaja) has shown its “concern” and has demanded “urgent measures” from the central government and the European Union (EU) following the notification issued this Monday warning of the detection at an entry point of Spain of the “presence of Hepatitis A in Moroccan strawberries.”
According to the notification issued on the RASFF (Rapid Alert System Feed and Food) community portal, the risk decision is “serious” because it exceeds the “maximum level allowed absence/25g” of this substance which, according to AVA-Asaja, “represents a danger to public health and may have appeared in the food due to irrigating the farms with sewage.”
Faced with this new health alert for fruit and vegetable imports from this third country, the organization chaired by Cristóbal Aguado has sent a letter to the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, to request that he “urgently ask for explanations from the Government of Morocco and specify what measures he plans.” undertake to prevent these types of situations from occurring again.”
AVA-Asaja has urged Planas to “inform the competent authorities of the European Union that all strawberries that come from Morocco undergo a thorough health inspection and, if more health alerts are detected in other fruits and vegetables from third countries, they will be extend controls to these products, because the health of consumers is at stake.”
The demand has also been sent to Brussels to address the problem in the community institutions, according to the agricultural organization in a statement.
AVA-Asaja has also informed the main consumer associations of the Valencian Community of this health alert – the Valencian Association of Consumers and Users (Avacu), the Association of Housewives and Consumers Tyrius and the Union of Consumers of the Valencian Community – and to the Official College of Physicians of Valencia, due to the risk it represents for human health.
The entity recalls that, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), hepatitis A is an inflammation of the liver due to the hepatitis A virus (HAV), which spreads mainly when an uninfected (and unvaccinated) person ingests water or food contaminated by feces from an infected person.
