The Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry has restricted the entry of gala and Granny Smith apples from the United States into Malaysia following the discovery of deadly bacteria at a packing plant. – Flickr pic, January 18, 2015.Apples from a Californian packing plant that had been contaminated with deadly bacteria have not been exported to Malaysia, said a United States embassy official as Putrajaya orders importers to recall Granny Smith apples.Agriculture attaché for Malaysia and Singapore Chris Rittgers said the company which packaged the apples, Bidart Bros, have recalled their gala and Granny Smith apples from all stores in the United States.However, there was no indication that the apples were exported to Malaysia, Rittgers told The Malaysian Insider in an email.“There is no indication that any of the apples subject to recall were exported to Malaysia. Apples from Washington State, which are extremely popular in Malaysia, are not part of this recall.“The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have clarified and confirmed that this incident is limited to the production from the Bidart Bros facility in California," said Rittgers.Bernama reported today that the Health Ministry had ordered importers to recall all Granny Smith apples in the local market and seal the stocks at their premises.This followed the US recall of gala and Granny Smith apples from the Bidart Bros’s Bakersfield apple processing plant.A January 9 statement on the FDA’s website said samples taken from the plant had tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes, a bacteria that causes listeriosis. Listeriosis causes high fever, severe headache, stiffness in the neck and nausea.Director-general of health Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said its records showed there were two importers of Granny Smith apples but none for the gala variety.The Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry has also restricted the entry of gala and Granny Smith apples from the United States into Malaysia.Its minister, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, had said the restriction was imposed by the Department of Malaysian Quarantine Inspection Services after the ministry received a notice on the contamination on January 15.In his email, Rittgers explained that the Bidart Bros facility, which had been contaminated, produced only a tiny fraction of the total gala and Granny Smith apples in the US.“The US recall is limited to production by a single US company. The recall does not affect any apples produced from any other apple sources." – January 18, 2015.
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