Keep the doctor away: Agriculture Ministry bans Gala and Granny Smith apples

Eat your fruits – but not these fruit.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry has banned the entry of Gala and Granny Smith apples from the United States into Malaysia, on suspicion that the apples have been contaminated with Listeriosis bacteria.

Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob told Bernama that the import restriction was imposed by the Department of Malaysian Quarantine Inspection Services (Maqis) after his ministry received a notification from the US last week.

“We received a notice from US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) informing us about the contamination and it is understood that it has caused three deaths and many fallen ill in the US and Canada,” he said.

While the Agriculture Ministry has the authority to stop the import of tainted fresh produce into the country, it had to defer to the Ministry of Health to authorise and carry out the recall of Listeriosis-tainted apples already on the local market.

That recall began in earnest yesterday, with the seizure of 19,960 Gala and Granny Smith apples worth RM82,000 in Kuching and Sibu, Sarawak.

The apples had all been imported from Bidart Brothers of Bakersfield, California, one of the sources of contaminated apples in the States.

“In this country only Sarawak imports apples from the company and so far no case of listeriosis disease has been detected,” Deputy Health Minister Dr Hilmi Yahaya told reporters.

Infection of listeriosis bacteria from tainted apples has caused three deaths in the US, with many moren fallen ill.

Government efforts to proactively monitor the import and sales of these variety of apples would continue until the issue was resolved completely.

“The public is urged to not panic as not all apples are affected, only those from the company concerned are tainted,” Hilmi said.



Reader Interactions

Leave A Reply


BECOME A COCO+ MEMBER

Support local news and join a community of like-minded
“Coconauts” across Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.

Join Now
Coconuts TV
Our latest and greatest original videos
Subscribe on