Prevalence of Hepatitis A and E viruses in ready-to-eat foods: A meta-analysis

The presence of Hepatitis A (HAV) and Hepatitis E (HEV) viruses in ready-to-eat foods (RTEFs) poses significant public health risk. The incidence of HEV in plant-based RTEFs particularly represents another emerging public health concern. There is a need for effective decontamination strategies to halt HAV and HEV exposure via RTEFs. The present study aimed at assessing the prevalence of foodborne HAV and HEV in RTEFs. A total of 2089 HAV/HEV-RTEFs related data from four integrated repositories was fitted to a mixed-effects model to estimate HAV and HEV prevalence. The prevalence of HEV in pork RTEFs was 22.67 % (95 %CI: 3.96-67.60; I² = 97.2 %, 95.6-98.2, p < 0.0001) and 0.71 % (0.17-2.95, I² = 0.0 %, 0.0 %-89.6 %; p = 0.66) in vegetable-based RTEFs. HAV prevalence in vegetable-based and meat-based RTEFs was 1.67 % (0.94-2.95; I² = 0 %, 0.0-79, p = 1) and 0 %, respectively. In conclusion, the analysis suggests that 22.67 % of RTE pork products carried HEV, highlighting a possible health risk and the need for effective decontamination measures. Meanwhile, HAV and HEV were very rarely found in vegetable-based RTEFs, suggesting they have a much smaller risk of HAV/HEV that cannot be neglected.