A WESTERN NSW berry farmer has encouraged residents to buy fresh and local amid the recent frozen berries hepatitis A scare.
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Kate Dickson, owner of Borenore Berry Farm in Orange was at the Dubbo Farmers' Market on Saturday and said she hadn't seen a noticeable increase in the number of people buying from her stall, but admitted a lot of people in the region would normally buy fresh.
"Dubbo's a good market and people appreciate good quality fruits," she said.
There have been 18 cases of hepatitis A in Australia that have been alleged to be a result of contaminated frozen berries and Ms Dickson said the outbreak had highlighted the need for stricter packaging laws.
"People have to know where the berries are coming from," she said.
"Imported produce is awful.
"They hid the importation with the line 'packaged in Australia, using imported ingredients' and it's wrong.
"We need to have more Made in Australia packaging, or made wherever it was more obvious."
Ms Dickson said fresh, local berries can be more expensive, but "you definitely get what you pay for".
"We have to do special courses, there is a lot of red tape and selling berries isn't cheap," she said.
"But there's no way in Australia we would contemplate using any of the stuff they do.
"I can't understand why they have to put it on.
"Fresh is definitely best and people should buy local."
