Avoid nations hit hard by COVID-19: Beijing to frozen food importers

Beijing, Sep 29: Authorities in Beijing have urged importers to "proactively avoid importing" frozen food from countries severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic over the risk of an outbreak.

The announcement comes after several cases of seafood products testing positive for coronavirus.

China recently suspended imports from seafood producers in Brazil, Indonesia and Russia for a week or more.

Chinese customs and local governments have repeatedly detected traces of the pathogen in imported cold-chain foods at a time when foreign food companies continued to report new infections, Beijing's commerce bureau said on its website. That proves that imported frozen foods are at risk of contamination, it added.

Last week, China suspended some seafood imports from two Russian vessels and a Brazilian company after the coronavirus was found on packaging and product samples.

Though experts remain doubtful about any concrete evidence that the virus can be transmitted through food and packaging contaminated items continue to grab the spotlight and stoke consumer fears, such as in June when a fresh outbreak of cases in Beijing triggered a nationwide boycott of salmon.