Spain’s Valencian Farmers Association AVA-ASAJA has voiced concern and urged the national government and the European Union to take urgent action after a recent alert flagged the appearance of Hepatitis A in strawberries from Morocco at a Spanish entry point. The notification originated from the European Union’s rapid alert system for food and feed, known as RASFF, highlighting a serious risk level due to a substance exceeding the maximum allowed absence per 25 grams. AVA-ASAJA emphasizes this finding poses a public health threat and suggests the contamination may have occurred if irrigation used wastewater on Moroccan farms.
In response to this new health alert tied to hortifruit imports from a non-EU country, AVA-ASAJA, led by Cristóbal Aguado, has sent a letter to the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas. The association requests that Planas urgently seek explanations from the Moroccan government and specify the measures it intends to take to prevent similar incidents in the future.
AVA-ASAJA has urged Planas to inform EU authorities that all strawberries from Morocco should undergo thorough sanitary inspections. Should additional health alerts arise for other fruits and vegetables from third countries, the organization recommends extending stricter controls to those products as well, stressing that consumer health is at stake.
The group has also forwarded the issue to Brussels to address the matter within European institutions, according to an official statement from the agricultural association.
AVA-ASAJA conveyed this health alert to major consumer organizations in the Valencian Community, including the Valencia Consumer Association and Users (Avacu), the Association of Housewives and Consumers Tyrius, and the Valencian Consumers Union, as well as to the Valencia Medical Association, given the potential risk to human health.
The association notes that, according to the World Health Organization, Hepatitis A is an inflammation of the liver caused by the hepatitis A virus. Transmission mainly occurs when a person who is not infected and not vaccinated consumes water or foods contaminated with feces from an infected individual.