Frozen berries: This temperature protects against noroviruses and hepatitis

The risk posed by viruses in frozen berries is often underestimated because we have saved fruit as healthy. However, you should be careful about frozen fruit and take the warning from the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety seriously.

Health risk from noroviruses and hepatitis in frozen berries

Of course, the best are the fresh organic berries from your own garden. When the berry season is over or you don't have a garden, frozen berries are a good alternative.

• The temptation to hold the delicious fruit briefly under running water after thawing and then to taste it is of course great. However, this procedure carries considerable risks.
• As the Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety announced, frozen berries are not uncommon and are therefore a health hazard.
• Contaminated means that frozen berries that have been contaminated with germs and viruses have been discovered more often in the past. Often these were frozen fruit from abroad. Chinese and Serbian frozen fruit in particular have been noticed by pathogens.
• If the contaminated frozen berries reach canteens, canteens, old people's homes or kindergartens, the pathogens quickly affect a few hundred people.

Frozen fruit with noroviruses and hepatitis - that's the only protection

According to the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety, the frozen berries are contaminated with dangerous pathogens such as the norovirus and hepatitis A viruses.

• Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver. Symptoms of hepatitis include yellow skin.
• Hepatitis A is transmitted fecal-orally by the virus. Experts suspect that the contamination of frozen fruit is caused by poor hygiene during harvesting and contaminated irrigation water.
• The novovirus triggers severe gastrointestinal diseases and can be life-threatening - especially for people who are already stressed or older, as well as children.
• Of course, not all frozen berries are affected. Food harmful to health is often discovered in good time and withdrawn from the market. But exceptions prove the rule - so you should play it safe; especially since you don't see the berries that they are loaded.
• The Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety generally recommends that the frozen fruit be heated to over 90 degrees for a few minutes so that the pathogens are killed. It is important that the temperature is at least 90 degrees, since the germs easily survive minus 20 to 60 degrees.
• The precautionary measure only applies to frozen fruit. With the organic berries from your garden, it is usually sufficient to rinse the fruit briefly.