You may have heard on the news or social media information regarding the recent Fruit Fly outbreak. The affected area’s range from Salisbury, Montacute, Brown Hill creek, Bellevue Heights, to the coast and all areas in between.

The information below is from the SA Government website.

What to do if you’re in an outbreak or suspension area

Home-grown produce

If you are in an outbreak or suspension area:

  • Keep your fresh home-grown fruit or fruiting vegetables on your property
  • You can eat, cook or preserve your own home-grown produce.
  • The less home-grown fruit is moved around, the lower the risk of potentially spreading fruit fly.

Shop-bought produce

  • Across metropolitan Adelaide there are many retail outlets in the current outbreak and suspension areas.
  • While produce from supermarkets and retail outlets is certified to reduce the risk of fruit fly, restrictions are in place for shop-bought host fruit and fruiting vegetables to reduce the risk of fruit fly potentially spreading.
  • If you live in a fruit fly outbreak or suspension area, host fruit and fruiting vegetables purchased from a retail outlet must be kept secure when taken home – this means in a sealed bag or container – and it must then remain at home.

This means host fruit and fruiting vegetables must not be included in lunch boxes or otherwise moved around. You’ll need to consider alternatives for lunch boxes, like non-fruit fly host vegetables such as carrots, celery, cucumbers and lettuce, or cooked fruit, processed fruit (such as fruit straps), fruit puree, canned fruit or frozen fruit.

These restrictions only apply to fruit fly host produce – find the Full List at https://pir.sa.gov.au/fruitfly-produce

Items such as melons, pumpkins, root and leaf vegetables (potatoes, carrots, celery, cucumbers and herbs) are not host produce and do not have any movement restrictions.

If we all play our part we can quickly eradicate this pest from your area.