A Canberra resident is the latest person to be confirmed having a strain of hepatitis A believed to be linked to imported frozen berries.

Australia’s chief medical officer reported the ACT’s first confirmed case on Thursday.

It brings to 19 the number of hepatitis A cases linked to the berries sold by Patties Foods.

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Meanwhile, Australia’s food standards authority has defended the decision not to specifically test frozen berries for hepatitis A when they are imported into Australia.

The Health Department said there were 18 cases (now possibly 19) of hepatitis A that had been linked with berries from two processing plants in China.

Berries imported from China have infected 18 people with hep A. Photo: AAP

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) told Senate estimates that it had not confirmed whether the berries were the source of the virus.

But the authority said the food processing plant in China was shut down over Chinese New Year and the specific products linked to the outbreak had been recalled.

It said the Department of Agriculture had put a “hold” on other products from the plants.

FSANZ chief executive Steve McCutcheon told the hearing there was a test for hepatitis A but that it was very limited and unreliable in detecting the virus in food.

“No country in the world uses hep A testing as part of a regulatory mechanism,” he said.

“Its value is best served when you have an outbreak and you are able to use it as a tool to identify the source of the outbreak.”

He said the authority did not consider elevating the “low” risk rating of imported berries following earlier hepatitis A outbreaks in the US and European Union.