There is uncertainty over the government's response to the hepatitis A outbreak, with the office of the Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce appearing to contradict comments by the Prime Minister about the screening of food imports.
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At a media conference on Thursday, Prime Minister Tony Abbott was asked how confident he was in the government's quarantine measures for imported products in the wake of the contamination of frozen Patties berries from China.
Mr Abbott said the government was doing everything possible in response to the outbreak, as the number of suspected cases across Australia continues to rise.
"We have moved to 100 per cent screening of these sorts of imports until this matter is resolved in a way which is very protective of the health of the Australian public," Mr Abbott said.
"So we've taken firm action because our job is to protect the Australian public."
A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister later explained that the 100 per cent screening applies only to Patties frozen berry products.
But it is remains unclear who is actually doing the screening.
While the Prime Minister's remarks appeared to suggest it was a response by the Australian authorities, Mr Joyce's office said it was Patties that was withholding the products and conducting screening.
Asked for clarification, Mr Abbott's office could not say who was screening the frozen berries.
Mr Joyce meanwhile has written to Food Standards Australia New Zealand requesting an urgent review of the risk assessment of frozen foods and the risk status of all imported frozen berries.
It came as Opposition Leader Bill Shorten described the entry of contaminated berries into the Australian market as "confidence sapping" and demanded a full account from the government "of how this happened".
"They like to talk about border security but what are they doing to make sure the food coming is healthy and not making Australians sick?" Mr Shorten said on Thursday.
"The government has to do more to make sure the food is safe and it has rocked the confidence of a lot of Australians in a way that some of the other issues out of Canberra haven't come close to in touching people's lives.
"When it comes to fresh food in Australia, we should be encouraging people to buy Australian grown and have more Australian-made campaigns."
Meanwhile Labor's assistant health spokesman Stephen Jones has called for an urgent briefing by the National Blood Authority "on the risks posed to the national blood supply and steps being taken to deal with this matter".
In a letter to Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash, Senator Jones also asked: "Why did it take five days after the public was alerted to hepatitis A contaminated frozen berries, and the first recalls were issued, before the government moved to temporarily improve scrutiny of frozen berry imports at our borders?"
"Why was no action taken to review the risk status of frozen berry imports following the outbreaks in Europe and North America?"
