US FDA to detain seeds of Turkish company

WASHINGTON - ISTANBUL

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced June 29 that it would detain shipments of pomegranate seeds from Göknur Gıda (Göknur Foodstuffs Import Export Trading) of Turkey when they arrived as imports into the United States as the seed may contain Hepatitis A virus in a press statement, while the company denounced the decision.

The C-levels of the Turkish company told the Hürriyet Daily News that their products had been declared clean after a series of FDA examinations and that there had been no notification by the FDA to them about detaining their seeds.

“The FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined that the most likely vehicle for the Hepatitis A virus appeared to be a common shipment of pomegranate seeds from Göknur used by Townsend Farms to make the Townsend Farms and Harris Teeter Organic Antioxidant Blends that were recalled in June,” according to the statement.

“The laboratories have tested our products and the results to date have not detected Hepatitis A,” Osman Aslanali, General Manager of Göknur Gıda said, adding that the FDA had announced this by a press statement June 28. “No virus has been detected in our products and we have no organic connection with Townsend Farms.We have not received any negative declaration from the FDA. Our production, packaging and distribution operations are in a strictly hygienic environment,” he added.