A SURREY Downs woman who died after contracting hepatitis A linked to the national recall of pomegranate seeds has been remembered as a “kind and caring” person with a “big heart”. The company told ABC News: "Entyce will work closely with health authorities and the SA Coroner to help determine the exact cause of the woman's death and if there was any direct link with the consumption of frozen pomegranate arils and hepatitis A." Entyce Food Ingredients, the owner of Creative Gourmet, issued an urgent recall of 180g packets of frozen pomegranate arils in April after an outbreak of hepatitis A in New South Wales. In a statement, SA Health’s chief medical officer Paddy Phillips said he hoped there wouldn’t be any more people suffering the illness, considering the product was recalled two months ago. Professor Philips said: "The majority of people infected with hepatitis A recover fully and the woman's death is the only death linked to this recalled product nationally to date. “The incubation period for hepatitis A is generally 15-50 days, so we don’t anticipate further cases because the product was recalled two months ago,” he said. “While we expect most people would have disposed of the recalled product, we urge everyone to double-check freezers and remove any affected products.”

There was a nationwide recall of the contaminated product on April 7 and Coles removed it from its freezers. The implicated seeds come from pomegranates grown in Egypt, according to the company’s website. “The recall affects less than one percent of the Creative Gourmet fruit sold annually in Australia.”

The company was also eager to point out the cases were yet to be directly linked to Entyce products and all products tested to date had been cleared.
A woman in Australia is reported dead from hepatitis after consuming frozen pomegranate. Health authorities have stated that 24 such cases were related to products by Entyce Food Ingredients.