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New app helps avoid a berry bad surprise

AAP

AAP

In the wake of the frozen berries scandal, high-tech methods to protect against contaminated foreign food are emerging.

Eighteen people have so far been diagnosed with hepatitis A linked to imported frozen berries, more than a week after a nationwide recall was issued for a range of products.

The federal government has promised to screen all frozen berries coming from suspect Chinese factories, but consumers can now take their own precautions.

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New smartphone app Glow allows users to scan the barcode of almost a million products across Australia and quickly find out more about their origins.

While the app cannot reveal more than what is volunteered by the manufacturers themselves, it will give consumers the power to “bang the drum harder” for better labelling, says its creator Tim Clover.

• Get the Glow app on iTunes
• Get the Glow app on Android

tim-clover

Tim Clover hopes his ‘Glow’ app will give more power to consumers.

This is because buyers can send messages directly back to the manufacturer through the app.

“We don’t go into sourcing research on the product, but what we do provide is transparency where, with the right consumer pressure, the brands will use tools like this to provide more information as demanded by consumers,” Mr Clover says.

Labels alone won’t fix the problem

The GoScan app made by The Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) also offers country of origin information by scanning or typing in the barcode.

An AFGC spokesman told The New Daily that his organisation “absolutely” backed the provision of extra labelling information through smartphone apps, but pointed out that the contaminated berries were clearly labelled as products of China.

Stronger enforcement, better public education about country of origin, and stronger support for industry-led schemes like The Australian Made Campaign are needed, the spokesman said.

“We are certainly supportive of a scheme that enhances consumer education, but doesn’t add unnecessary cost and complexity,” he said.

Agricultural Minister Barnaby Joyce has called for stronger food labelling – a call echoed by The Australian Made Campaign itself.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has so far resisted, saying any change would create red tape (which he has promised to reduce) and drive up supermarket prices.

How to protect yourself: beat it or heat it

AAP

Be wary of ‘Australian made, from local and imported ingredients’. Trust ‘Australian Grown’. Photo: AAP

Regardless of whether you use an app or whether the government toughens labelling, there are two simple ways to avoid contamination: buy local or cook foreign.

Cooking or boiling foreign foods at 90 degrees for 10 minutes kills most viruses, said The University of Melbourne food scientist Dr Said Ajlouni, provided the consumer is “not too much concerned” with destroying nutrients.

To save more antioxidants or vitamins, the minimum would be one minute at 85 degrees, Dr Ajlouni added.

Consumers who want to avoid foreign foods altogether should look for the words “Australian Grown” or “Product of Australia”.

Whether or not the product bears the green-and-gold kangaroo, either phrase means that everything has been grown and processed locally.

Products labelled “Australian Made” may contain imported ingredients.

In Victoria, 53 schools and childcare centres have warned that their staff and students may have eaten risky berries.

Another 22 institutions in South Australia and 18 in Queensland may also be affected.

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