Chinese cities find coronavirus in imports of frozen food, WHO reduces infection risk

BEIJING / SHANGHAI / BRAZIL (Reuters) – Two cities in China have found traces of the new coronavirus in loads of imported frozen food, local authorities said on Thursday, although the World Health Organization reduced the risk of the virus entering the food chain.

A sample taken from the surface of frozen chicken wings imported into the southern city of Shenzhen from Brazil, as well as samples of outer packaging of frozen Ecuadorian shrimp sold in the northwestern city of Xian, have tested positive for the virus, local Chinese authorities said.

Shenzhen authorities identified the chicken as originating from a plant owned by Aurora, the third largest exporter of poultry and pork in Brazil.

As confirmed COVID-19 cases continue to increase, the findings raise fresh concerns that the coronavirus that causes the disease may spread to surfaces and enter the food group. A day earlier, officials began investigating whether the first COVID-19 cases in New Zealand in more than three months were imported by freight.

Viruses can survive up to two years at temperatures of minus 20 degrees Celsius, but scientists and officials say there is no strong evidence to date that the coronavirus can spread through frozen food.

“People should not be afraid of food, food packaging or food supply,” World Health Organization emergency chief Mike Ryan said in a briefing.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Agriculture Department said in a joint statement “there is no evidence that humans can contract COVID-19 from food or from food packaging.”

Aurora of Brazil, who is unlisted, said it was not formally informed by the Chinese authorities of the alleged contamination. The company said it is taking all possible measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and that there is no evidence that it is spread through food. The Ministry of Agriculture in Brazil said it was seeking statement from Chinese authorities.

Reuters could not immediately reach the Ecuadorian embassy in Beijing.

Shenzhen health authorities tracked and tested anyone who may have come in contact with potentially contaminated food products, and all results were negative, the city’s report said.

“It is difficult to say at what stage the frozen chicken was infected,” an official in China told a Brazilian meat exporter.

Shenzhen’s headquarters for epidemic prevention and control said the public needed to take precautionary measures to reduce the risk of infection from imported meat and seabirds.

The Shaanxi Province Health Commission, where Xian city is located, said authorities were testing people and the surrounding environment related to the contaminated shrimp products, which were sold in a local market.

In addition to screening all containers of meat and seabirds arriving in major ports in recent months, China has stopped some meat imports from various places, including Brazil, since mid-June.

Seven Argentine meat processing plants are temporarily not exporting to China because they have registered cases of COVID-19 among their employees, a source from the Argentine agency Senasa said on Thursday.

The first cluster of COVID-19 cases was linked to the Huanan Sea Fair in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Early studies suggested that the virus originated in animal products for sale on the market.

Li Fengqin, who heads a microbiology lab at the China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment, told reporters in June the possibility of contaminated frozen food causing new infections could not be ruled out.

Xinfadi Market, a sprawling food market in the Chinese capital of Beijing, was linked in June to a cluster of infections. Authorities said the virus was found in the market on a cutting board on which imported salmon were being treated.

How the virus enters Xinfadi’s market in the first place is yet to be determined, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said in its latest update of the study in July. The market will reopen this weekend.