A bag of frozen strawberries sits in your freezer. Organic. Convenient. Perfect for smoothies. It could also contain a virus that survives freezing and has sent hundreds of people to hospitals across North America and Europe in the past three years.
Government incident data tracked through SGS Digicomply's Food Safety Intelligence Hub reveals a 39-fold surge in Hepatitis A mentions linked to frozen berries between 2021 and 2022—a jump that has sustained through 2025. In this article, we examine what triggered this explosive growth, why the United States accounts for nearly half of all global incidents, and what food safety professionals need to understand about a threat that refuses to disappear.
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From 2010 through 2021, Hepatitis A incidents in frozen and fresh berries were a footnote—sporadic mentions, minor concerns. Starting in 2022, that changed dramatically. The surge peaked immediately and has sustained through 2024, with incident mentions remaining at levels more than 30 times higher than the pre-2022 baseline. Even partial data for 2025 shows the problem persists.
This wasn't a gradual increase. It was an eruption.
Geography tells a stark story. According to SGS Digicomply data, the United States accounts for nearly half of all reported Hepatitis A incidents linked to frozen fruit and berries globally. Spain follows at a distant second, with barely a fifth of U.S. numbers. New Zealand, the Netherlands, Canada, and Morocco also appear, but the American market stands out as the clear epicenter.
Why the U.S.? The answer lies in import patterns and supply chain complexity. American consumers consume massive quantities of frozen berries year-round, much of it imported from regions where Hepatitis A is endemic and agricultural hygiene practices vary widely.
Hepatitis A virus (HAV) spreads through fecal contamination. In berry production, that means contaminated water for irrigation, inadequate handwashing by field workers, or insufficient sanitation facilities near harvest areas. Unlike bacteria, HAV doesn't grow on food—it merely survives. And it survives freezing exceptionally well, which is why frozen berries are particularly problematic.
Fresh strawberries picked by an infected worker can be processed into frozen products within hours. Those products then enter complex supply chains, get repackaged under multiple brand names, and sit in freezers for months before reaching consumers. By the time someone gets sick, tracing back to the source becomes extraordinarily difficult.
The explosive growth in incident mentions correlates directly with real-world outbreaks. In 2022 and 2023, federal investigators in the U.S. and Canada traced 39 Hepatitis A cases back to a single grower in Baja California, Mexico. The same farm supplied both fresh strawberries (2022 outbreak) and frozen strawberries (2023 outbreak). Genetic testing confirmed the virus strain was identical across both events.
Farm inspections revealed the critical gaps: inadequate handwashing facilities, insufficient worker training on hygiene protocols, and potential contamination in irrigation water. Testing detected fecal indicator organisms in environmental water samples, though the virus itself wasn't found in the limited berry samples collected.
What made this particularly damaging was the commingling effect. Fresh strawberries from the contaminated harvest were sold to multiple importers. Some went directly to retail as fresh fruit. Others were processed into frozen products and distributed under numerous brand names to major retailers including Costco, Walmart, Trader Joe's, HEB, and Aldi. The recalls cascaded across more than 30 U.S. states.
The obvious question: did regulatory surveillance improve, or did the problem genuinely escalate?
The evidence points to a real problem, not just enhanced detection. Hospitalization rates tell the story. In the 2022-2023 strawberry outbreaks, 40% of confirmed cases required hospitalization—a rate far higher than would be expected if cases were merely being caught earlier through better testing. These weren't mild, subclinical infections discovered through routine screening. These were people sick enough to seek medical attention, get tested, and in many cases, need hospital care.
Moreover, the problem hasn't been limited to strawberries or Mexico. In late 2024 and early 2025, a new Hepatitis A outbreak emerged in the Netherlands linked to frozen blueberries sold by Albert Heijn supermarkets. Twenty-four cases were confirmed, eight requiring hospitalization. Laboratory testing found HAV in patient berry samples, confirming contamination. Belgium also issued recalls for potentially related products.
The pattern is clear: multiple source countries, multiple berry types, recurring outbreaks despite regulatory attention.
Several factors converged to create the current risk landscape. First, consumer demand for frozen berries has grown substantially, driven by smoothie culture and year-round availability expectations. This increased volume puts pressure on suppliers to source from regions with lower costs but sometimes weaker food safety infrastructure.
Second, the "organic" label creates a false sense of security. Many contaminated products carried organic certification, yet organic standards don't inherently address viral contamination risks. Organic farming still requires human labor for hand-harvesting, and if those workers lack access to proper sanitation facilities, the virus spreads regardless of pesticide use.
Third, frozen products create extended exposure windows. Unlike fresh produce with a week-long shelf life, frozen berries can sit in consumer freezers for months. A contaminated batch from early 2022 was still causing illnesses in mid-2023 as consumers slowly worked through their freezer stock.
Recognizing the pattern, FDA released a comprehensive strategy document focused on preventing HAV and norovirus outbreaks in fresh and frozen berries. The agency identified key focus areas: field worker hygiene and handwashing, sanitation facility management, cross-contamination prevention during processing, and monitoring of worker viral carriage.
Critically, FDA noted that no domestic berry-related HAV outbreaks have been reported in 35 years. Every recent outbreak traces back to imported berries. This isn't about American versus foreign produce—it's about supply chain visibility and enforcement consistency. Domestic operations face regular FDA inspection. Foreign suppliers face more limited oversight until product reaches U.S. borders, by which point contamination has already occurred.
SGS Digicomply data reveals that "outbreaks" dominate incident mentions, significantly outnumbering recalls or control actions. This distinction matters. A recall means potentially contaminated product is identified and removed before widespread illness. An outbreak means people are already sick. The ratio suggests reactive rather than preventive measures are still the norm.
Product categories show frozen fruits and vegetables account for the overwhelming majority of incidents. Fresh produce, beverages, and prepared foods appear but represent a small fraction. The frozen berry supply chain—with its long distribution times, multiple repackaging steps, and international sourcing—creates unique vulnerabilities.
For QA managers and food safety teams, the Hepatitis A surge demands specific action. Supplier verification programs need to include viral contamination risk assessment, not just bacterial pathogen testing. This means auditing sanitation facilities at growing operations, verifying worker training programs, and understanding water sources used for irrigation and processing.
Traceability becomes critical. When outbreaks occur, the ability to rapidly identify implicated lots and trace them through processing and distribution determines how quickly contaminated product gets removed. Companies that struggled with the 2022-2023 recalls often lacked lot-level traceability for incoming raw materials. Those frozen strawberries came from multiple harvest dates, multiple fields, and multiple processors—all commingled into single production lots.
Testing has limitations. HAV doesn't distribute evenly through contaminated product, so negative test results don't guarantee safety. The virus may be present on a few berries in a 40-pound case. Sampling plans need to account for this heterogeneity, which typically means very large sample sizes that are economically impractical for routine monitoring.
The most effective control remains source prevention. Work directly with growers to ensure adequate sanitation infrastructure exists before harvest season begins. Verify that workers have accessible, clean toilet facilities and handwashing stations. Confirm that irrigation water is tested and treated. These aren't glamorous interventions, but they're the ones that actually prevent contamination.
Current data through November 2025 shows incident mentions declining from the 2022-2023 peak but remaining well above historical baselines. The Netherlands blueberry outbreak demonstrates the problem hasn't been solved—it's shifted. Different source countries, different berry varieties, but the same fundamental risk: fecal contamination from inadequate agricultural hygiene.
FDA's heightened focus on imports may drive some improvement, but the global berry supply chain will continue to present challenges. As long as consumer demand for inexpensive, year-round frozen berries drives sourcing from regions with endemic HAV and variable sanitation infrastructure, outbreaks will recur.
For food safety professionals, the Hepatitis A surge in frozen berries represents a clear signal: viral contamination in produce isn't just a theoretical risk. It's happening repeatedly, affecting major retailers, and sending people to hospitals. The time for reactive responses has passed. Supply chain redesign, rigorous supplier qualification, and aggressive source prevention are now baseline requirements.
The ability to detect outbreak patterns early determines how quickly companies can protect consumers and their brands. SGS Digicomply's Food Safety Intelligence Hub provides real-time access to government incident data across countries and product categories, enabling trend identification before crises escalate. By consolidating regulatory updates, outbreak reports, and pathogen surveillance, the platform allows food safety teams to move from reactive firefighting to proactive risk management. When Hepatitis A mentions began surging in 2022, Digicomply users could track the pattern, identify implicated products, and assess their own supply chain exposure while others were still learning about recalls from news reports.