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China says it has detected the coronavirus in imported frozen food packages, but how valid are its claims and how serious is the threat to public health?
China makes controversial claims that it detected Covid-19 in imported frozen food packages. Source: Associated Press
Frozen shrimp imported from an Ecuadorian company was banned for a week Tuesday in an ongoing series of temporary bans.
While experts say the virus can survive for a time in cardboard and plastic packaging, it is unclear how serious the risk is. Like so many other issues related to the pandemic, the issue has quickly become politicized.
China has rejected complaints from the United States and others, saying it is prioritizing people’s lives. Experts say they generally do not consider the presence of the virus on packaging to be a significant health risk.
A look at the topic and some of the conclusions so far:
Packaging became a major problem for the first time with outbreaks in China linked to wholesale food markets, including one in June outside Beijing. That prompted the removal of smoked salmon from supermarket shelves and has snowballed in several cases across the country involving chicken, beef and seafood from nearly two dozen countries. In some supermarkets, imported meat now comes with a label declaring that it is virus-free.
Infections among merchandise handlers have also raised suspicions about packaging. However, human-to-human transmission has not been ruled out, and China has yet to release evidence that packaging was the route of infection.
Trading partners, including the US, New Zealand, Canada and the EU, say they are unclear on China’s methodology and have not seen strong evidence that their products carried the virus. The United States has questioned whether China’s crackdown has a scientific basis and suggested that the bans may constitute an unfair trade barrier.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian called the US accusations “totally unfounded and unreasonable.” China’s measures are “necessary in the spirit of putting people’s lives first and protecting their health,” he said last week.
In a statement to The Associated Press, the World Health Organization said that cases of live viruses found in packaging appear to be “rare and isolated.” While the virus can “survive a long time in cold storage conditions,” there is no evidence that people contract Covid-19 from consuming food, he said.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19 is overwhelmingly transmitted through respiratory droplets and smaller airborne particles, underscoring the importance of wearing masks.
However, the virus can also be present on surfaces, and public health officials have urged people to wash their hands carefully and avoid physical contact with other people. In general, the colder and drier the conditions, the longer the virus can survive on surfaces.
Cleaning countertops, handrails, and other surfaces is a common way to ensure safety. Some people have also gone to the extreme of disinfecting packages that arrive at their homes, either by themselves or by delivery services.
The traces of viruses found on the packaging can be infectious or non-infectious. The extremely sensitive tests used can detect active viruses and their debris, without being able to distinguish between them, said Timothy Newsome, a virologist at the University of Sydney.
“It is possible and it may pose some risk, but it is certainly on the lower end of transmission risk,” he said. “We know that low temperatures do stabilize the virus. However, I think that the things that have been transported and the surface transmission have a low risk of it happening. “
A positive test “does not indicate an infectious virus, only that some sign of the virus is present on that surface,” said Andrew Pekosz of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
“I have not seen convincing data that SARS-CoV-2 in food packaging poses a significant risk of infection,” he said.
