No Hepatitis Risk from Strawberries in New York State
Albany, April 2, 1997 – Federal officials have advised New York State that none of the frozen strawberries linked to cases of Hepatitis A elsewhere in the nation were supplied to schools in New York. As a precaution, however, schools which have received frozen strawberries from the Office of General Service (OGS) Commodities program are being advised not to serve the fruit until further notice.
Officials of the State Department of Agriculture and Markets and Department of Health and the Office of General Services say they have been assured by federal authorities that although strawberries from the same California distributor were shipped to New York, none of the suspect lots were distributed here. The frozen strawberries distributed to schools in New York State came from a single lot number which has not been implicated in the disease outbreak.
A total of 13 lots of the frozen sliced strawberries, grown in Mexico, initially were implicated in approximately 130 cases of Hepatitis A in Michigan. Thirty pound containers of the frozen strawberries were distributed to school lunch programs there. Six other states: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Tennessee and Iowa also received fruit from the suspect lots.
State officials are working closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration and United States Department of Agriculture to monitor the situation and to insure that there continues to be no health risk to New Yorkers.
4/2/97–38 OPA
