Frozen Egyptian strawberries imported into the U.S. since Jan. 1, 2016 have been recalled due to an outbreak of Hepatitis A that has sickened at least 134 people in the U.S. These strawberries (often used in smoothies) include whole, sliced and sugared, and diced frozen strawberries, and were sold in foodservice size packages by the following five companies:

  • Jetro/Restaurant Depot, which sold them under the James Farm brand, and unbranded as “Bits & Pieces”
  • Sysco Corp., which sold them under the Sysco brand
  • Reddy Raw, which sold them under the Regal brand
  • C.H. Belt, which sold them under the CH World brand
  • Patagonia Foods, which sold them under the Patagonia brand

The FDA recommends that institutions and food service operations supplied by any of these five companies should immediately contact their suppliers and determine if they received frozen strawberry product included in the recall. Institutions and food service operations that find they served any recalled product within the last two weeks should contact their local health department and communicate to their customers regarding possible exposure to Hepatitis A virus and the potential benefit of post exposure prophylaxis (PEP). Because Hepatitis A can have serious health consequences, CDC advises PEP for unvaccinated persons who have consumed any of the recalled frozen strawberry products in the last 2 weeks. PEP offers no preventive benefit to persons whose exposure occurred more than 2 weeks ago. 

Details are available at: http://www.fda.gov/Food/RecallsOutbreaksEmergencies/Outbreaks/ucm518775.htm#Recalled