FDA Refusing Imports of Pomegranate Seeds from Turkish Company Linked to Hepatitis A Outbreak
The Food and Drug Administration is refusing imports of pomegranate seeds from Turkish company Goknur Gida Maddeleri Ithalat Ihracat Tic (aka Goknur Foodstuffs Import Export Trading), after connecting the product to a multistate outbreak of hepatitis A that infected 56 people in seven states. The joint investigation by FDA and the Centers for Disease Control found the a single shipment of seeds was the common ingredient in Townsend Farms and Harris Teeter Organic Antioxidant Blends that were recalled in June, it said.
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“The outbreak highlights the food safety challenge posed by today’s global food system,” said Michael Taylor, deputy commissioner-foods and veterinary medicine at FDA. “The presence in a single product of multiple ingredients from multiple countries compounds the difficulty of finding the cause of an illness outbreak,” he said. “The hepatitis A outbreak shows how we have improved our ability to investigate and respond to outbreaks, but also why we are working to build a food safety system that more effectively prevents them.”
According to FDA, CDC said that as of June 27, 127 people had been exposed to the Townsend Farms Organic Antioxidant Blend. Illnesses were reported in Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wisconsin. The infected people in Wisconsin were exposed to the product in California, FDA said.