Health alert due to the presence of hepatitis A in strawberries from Morocco

David Vigario Merida

Merida

Updated Tuesday, March 5, 2024-9:15 p.m.

New chapter in the importation of products from third countries to Spain, and specifically from Morocco, where Spanish farmers and ranchers are putting emphasis in their street protests in the last month as one of the main problems, that of health

control in the ports

, when denouncing the situation suffered by the Spanish countryside.

The community portal RASFF (Rapid Alert System Feed and Food) has warned of the

"presence of Hepatitis A in strawberries from Morocco"

detected at some entry points of this product in Spain.

The alarm was raised by the Valencian Association of Farmers AVA-ASAJA, who today showed their "concern" and demanded "urgent measures" from the central government and the European Union (EU) in response to a notification issued in the last few hours by said community portal, which has warned of "the presence of Hepatitis A in strawberries from Morocco."

According to the notification, the risk decision level

is classified as "serious"

because it exceeds the "maximum allowable level absence/25g" of this substance.

Due to this, AVA-ASAJA emphasizes that "it poses a danger to public health and may have appeared in the food due to irrigating farms

with fecal water."

The Valencian Association of Consumers and Users AVACU has joined the complaint of the agricultural organization and has demanded "stronger measures for all products imported from Morocco and

a more active border

that verifies the suitability of products from third countries outside the EU".

Faced with this new health alert for fruit and vegetable imports from Morocco, the farmers' association chaired by

Cristóbal Aguado

has sent a letter to the Minister of Agriculture,

Luis Planas,

to request that he "urgently ask the Government of Morocco for explanations and specify what measures it plans." undertake to prevent this type of situation from happening again.

Along the same lines, AVA-ASAJA urges Planas to "inform the competent authorities of the European Union that all strawberries that come from Morocco undergo an exhaustive health inspection and, if more health alerts are detected in other fruits and vegetables of third countries,

controls are extended to these products,

because the health of consumers is at stake".

The demand has also been sent to ASAJA Brussels to address the problem in the community institutions.

AVA-ASAJA has also informed of this health alert to the main consumer associations of the Valencian Community - 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 Illustrious Official College of Physicians of Valencia, due to the risk it represents for human health.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "hepatitis A is an inflammation of the liver due to the hepatitis A virus (HAV), which spreads primarily

when an uninfected (and unvaccinated) person ingests contaminated food or water. by feces of an infected person.

It must be remembered that the EU-Morocco Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreement, signed in February 1996, entered into force in March 2000 and establishes a free trade area for industrial products.

With the aim of continuing to advance trade liberalization, a new agricultural protocol was negotiated in October 2012.