Indonesia Halts Granny Smith, Gala Apple Imports From US, Citing Bacteria
[Updated at 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015 to add comment from a US embassy spokesman]
Jakarta. Indonesia has stopped importing Granny Smith and Gala apples from Bakersfield, California, citing bacterial contamination that could result in fatal infection to babies, children or adults with weak immune systems.
“The apples, which are traded under Granny's Best and Big B trademark, are allegedly contaminated by Listeria monocytogenes,” said Widodo, the Trade Ministry's director general of consumer protection and standardization, in a statement on Monday.
Widodo said the government was acting on an alert from the International Food Safety Network on Jan. 17, announcing a recall of “internationally distributed apples and commercially produced, prepackaged caramel apples from the US due to contamination with Listeria monocytogenes.”
A spokesman from the US Embassy in Jakarta said on Tuesday that the ban on apples from the US applied only to Gala and Granny Smiths produced by the Bidart Brothers in California and that all other kinds of apples were unaffected.
Indonesia’s Food and Drug Monitoring Agency said Indonesia has not imported prepackaged caramel apples in the past, but the Trade Ministry is still tracing Granny Smith and Big B apples in the domestic market.
“Consumers who already bought them, please do not consume the apples,” Widodo said.
GlobeAsia
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