Shanghai intensifies virus test for imported cold-storage foods

Shanghai authorities announced on Sunday that high-risk imported cold-storage foods will be tested for coronavirus and its packaging disinfected before they are allowed to be stored, processed and sold in the city.

The test and disinfected documents have to be submitted at designated transfer storage facilities or companies’ cold storage facilities. An online reservation on www.sipg.com.cn is necessary to pick up the goods from Monday.

Imported cold-storage foods that have not been disinfected yet will be sent for testing and transported on designated vehicles from ports.

The latest move comes on the heels of positive reports of coronavirus on imported food products in several cities in China.

Packaging of frozen beef from Argentina stored at a cold-storage logistics facility in Shanghai has tested positive for the virus and has been sealed, local authorities said on Friday.

Staff who had contact with the imported beef have been screened and quarantined. The venue has been disinfected, and 458 people have been tested twice. All the results were negative.

The packaging of the same batch of beef had tested positive in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province.

The beef is stored at Shanghai Wanshen Cold-storage Logistics Co Ltd and has not been put up for sale in the market.

Jinan, the capital of eastern China’s Shandong Province, said on Saturday it had found coronavirus on beef and tripe and their packaging from Brazil, Bolivia and New Zealand.

The goods involved were imported by a unit of Guotai International Group, and Shanghai Zhongli Development Trade, the Jinan’s health commission said.

A total of 3,535 items tested positive for coronavirus. Among them, 1,149 had been distributed and 2,386 were in storage. The inventory has since been sealed. They entered through ports in Shanghai.