As more people are expected to contract the virus hepatitis A from frozen berries imported from China, it is time we had a serious conversation about what is more important — the health of Australians or open slather on food imports for the sake of making money.

Australian consumers are spoilt for choice with a dizzying array of food products to choose from on their supermarket shelves.

The problem is that most consumers would not have a clue where any of it comes from. 

Labelling of food products is woefully inadequate, misleading and often downright deceptive.

Look closely at a product that you might think is Australian and you’ll discover that it was actually just packed here and grown under dubious circumstances on the other side of the world.

That is precisely what has occurred with the latest health scare involving frozen berries from Patties Foods.

Another issue that urgently needs addressing is the testing of imported food products.

Just 5 per cent of imported product undergoes rigorous health and hygiene checks before it is allowed onto Australian supermarket shelves or other stores. It is a dangerously small figure.

While this latest hepatitis A scare is not overly serious and is unlikely to kill anyone, it does serve as a warning to the food industry.

Food grown in this country is subject to tight controls with producers forced to prove that their product meets extremely strict hygiene standards yet, stupidly, imported food does not.

This has to change because it is only a matter of time before something like this happens again, only with fatal consequences.

How is it that our own food producers have to jump through so many hoops, but foreign producers do not?

It does not make sense.

Although most of us are happy to consume imported food, we should not be expected to play Russian roulette with our health.