Customers of A Frame Espresso in Fort Bragg, CA who ordered smoothies between March 4 and June 8 are at risk of hepatitis A infection. The coffee shop used recalled Townsend Farms Organic Antioxidant Blend berries to make the smoothies, the Mendocino County Public Health Department has warned.
The berries, which were sold at Coscto stores, have been associated with an outbreak of hepatitis A that has sickened at least 119 people in seven states. The cases by state are as follows: Arizona (16), California (61), Colorado (24), Hawaii (5), New Mexico (5), Nevada (5), and Utah (3).
Hepatitis A is a virus that causes liver inflammation. Symptoms can take up to seven weeks after exposure to develop and include: fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, vomiting, stomach pain, and yellowing of the skin or eyes. Some who are infected with the virus have no symptoms at all. The illness can be mild, lasting a couple of weeks or severe lasting several months.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is inspecting the processing facilities of Townsend Farms of Fairview, Oregon. The FDA has also developed a method to test berries for the Hepatitis A virus (HAV), and is testing samples of Townsend berries for hepatitis.
A Frame Espresso is not the only restaurant to use the recalled frozen berries for smoothies. Customers of Evo’s Coffee Lounge, in Ashland, Oregon, may have been exposed to Hepatitis A in the coffee shop’s “Radically Free” smoothie served between May 17 and June 12, 2013, the Jackson County Oregon Health Department warnedin a June 14 advisory.
