Active Covid was found on frozen food packaging in China - but do imported products pose a risk?

Imports from a Chilean seafood producer have been halted in China after Covid-19 was detected on the food packaging.

A nucleic acid test on a bath of frozen crab produced a positive result for the virus, the General Administration of Customs confirmed in a statement on Saturday 28 November.

‘Precautionary measure’

Import applications from Pesquera Isla Del Rey have now been suspended for one week as a precautionary measure.

The discovery is just one of several cases where traces of the virus has been found on packaging and food, sparking concerns that imported items could be linked to resurgences in infections.

Earlier in October, China’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention detected active Covid-19 on the packaging of a refrigerated food item in the coastal city of Qingdao in Shandong province. Wuhan, where the pandemic first broke out, has also reported three incidences of contamination on imported frozen food packaging, with samples producing a positive result for the virus.

Elsewhere, the city of Huozhou in north China’s Shanxi Province found active Covid-19 on the packaging of imported frozen freshwater shrimp from Ecuador earlier this month.