China has repeatedly found traces of pathogens on packages and foodstuffs, raising concerns that imported goods are linked to the recent outbreak of the virus in Beijing and the coastal city of Dalian.
Evidence suggests that food is an unlikely route to transmitting the coronavirus across borders, but contaminated items are still shining the spotlight, deepening uncertainty over whether the $ 220 billion cold chain industry might be implicated within the spread of Covid-19.
China has repeatedly found traces of pathogens on packages and foodstuffs, raising concerns that imported goods are linked to the recent outbreak of the virus in Beijing and the coastal city of Dalian.
In the nation's strongest measure since it began testing foodstuffs in June, a major Chinese city on Sunday banned imports of frozen meat from coronavirus hotspots.
Cold storage facilities and meat processing plants are ideal environments for virus spread, as the pathogen thrives in cold and dry environments. But there is no concrete evidence that the virus can be transmitted through food, and experts still doubt that it is a major threat.
"We know that viruses usually survive freezing," said Benjamin Cowling, head of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Hong Kong . "In theory this suggests that it's possible for infection to spread during this way." "But actually , it is a very low risk that this may happen because so many steps are needed."
The virus will need to survive frozen and defrosted. He will need access to someone's hands and then to his nose or mouth, and he is still alive. "I don't think it'll be a recurring mode of transmission, but it's possible," he said.
Zhong Nanshan, China's chief respiratory disease expert who is advising Beijing on its response to the Covid-19 virus, has played down the role that frozen food can play in transmission. "It is comparatively rare to detect the virus from imported frozen foods ," he said. "Let's not overdo it."
Guangzhou Pan
Amid the lack of conclusive evidence, China is taking precautionary steps, causing major unrest with its trading partners. The Cold Chain Association in the southern Chinese port city of Guangzhou has ordered all member companies to suspend imports of frozen meat and seafood from coronavirus-affected areas.
The order was issued after the government within the nearby city of Shenzhen found the virus on a surface sample of chicken wings imported from Brazil. Hong Kong has also stopped imports from this plant.
Otherwise, China refrained from taking massive steps nationwide against imported meat due to its population's dependence on the food source.
New Zealand originally considered the possibility that the new group, which appeared suddenly last week after 102 days without a local virus case, may have been linked to a cold storage plant, as the first person to test positive was working at the Oakland America facility.
exclude
But the preliminary results of environmental tests at the plant disproved the theory that the transport path was through cooled surfaces on materials coming in from outside, General Manager Health Ashley Bloomfield said Tuesday.
"The full report will contain the small print , but it seems clear now that this possibility is excluded from this investigation," he said.
The main unanswered question is whether the effects that China discovered on frozen food packaging and surfaces are still viable and contagious, or whether they are just dead, harmless remnants of a pathogen.
“What we all know publicly and what we have seen thus far is that this virus can survive outside of individuals for up to a couple of days, counting on the environment,” said Sarah Cahill, Senior Food Standards Officer at Codex Alimentarius, the agency.
Responsible for developing food standards within the framework of the World Health Organization and the United Nations.
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