China detects traces of corona virus on frozen meat and packaging from global exporters

Source: The Pig Site, 16 November 2020, photo credit: Shutterstock/Photosiber/Taste of Home

The Chinese city of Jinan says that it has found coronavirus on beef and tripe and their packaging from Brazil, Bolivia and New Zealand, while two other provincial capitals detected traces of the virus on pork packaging from Argentina.

Reuters reports that China is ramping up testing on frozen foods after repeatedly detecting the virus on imported products, triggering disrupting import bans, even as the World Health Organisation says the risk of catching COVID-19 from frozen food is low.

In Jinan, capital of eastern China’s Shandong province, the goods involved were imported by a unit of Guotai International Group, and Shanghai Zhongli Development Trade, the city’s municipal health commission said late on Saturday 14 November.

They entered through ports in Shanghai, it said, without naming the companies that shipped the products to China. More than 7,500 people who may have been exposed tested negative for coronavirus, it said.

The frozen pork cases were reported in Zhengzhou, capital of central China’s Henan province, and Xian, capital of Shaanxi. It was not immediately clear if the two cases were connected.
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The South African Pork Producers’ Organisation (SAPPO) coordinates industry interventions and collaboratively manages risks in the value chain to enable the sustainability and profitability of pork producers in South Africa.