More than 120,000 mangoes shipped to South Australia from Queensland have been recalled after the discovery of fruit fly larvae in some of the fruit.
Biosecurity South Australia has required a distributor to recall all produce from the affected grower, which is still in storage or on supermarket shelves, including all produce sent to South Australia since the beginning of December.
However, it says the discovery of larvae does not constitute an outbreak of fruit fly.
More than 120,000 mangoes shipped to South Australia from Queensland have been recalled after the discovery of fruit fly larvae in some of the fruit
Biosecurity SA chief executive Will Zacharin said quick action from a member of the public alerted authorities to the heavily infested fruit.
‘The importer has elected to fumigate the product still on hand, however, given the seriousness of the infestation a full recall from shelves has been ordered,’ he said.
‘We will be suspending further consignments and following up with the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries as to why pre-delivery treatment of the fruit, as required under an import verification compliance arrangement, appears to have failed.’
Mr Zacharin said that people would be able to tell if they had purchased infected fruit and should seal the item in a plastic bag before calling the fruit fly hotline on 1300 666 010.
‘They are very small white larvae, smaller than a blowfly larvae… and they will be quite obvious to you when you cut the fruit open,’ Mr Zacharin told Yahoo7.
‘We will come and pick it up because we need to try and trace every infected mango that may have come into the state.’
Biosecurity SA chief executive Will Zacharin said that people would be able to tell if they had purchased infected fruit and should seal the item in a plastic bag before calling the fruit fly hotline on 1300 666 010 (stock picture)
Despite the recall, the Australian Mango Industry Association said there would be no shortage of the popular fruit over Christmas and it should not impact prices.
‘There will be an abundance of quality fruit in SA and throughout Australia, over the next few weeks and into the new year,’ the association said in a statement.
‘This week 587,000 trays of mangoes arrived in markets throughout the country.
‘The recall was less than two per cent of this volume.’