The tests on the samples of the interior of the packaging and the shrimps themselves, however, remained negative.
Beijing:
China has temporarily banned food imports from three Ecuadorian companies after detecting a coronavirus on the packaging of frozen shrimp, after further scrutiny of chilled products after a recent epidemic in Beijing.
Samples from the packaging of Whiteleg shrimp in the port cities of Dalian and Xiamen tested positive for the virus, said the head of the general customs administration, Bi Kexin, at a press conference.
The tests on the samples of the interior of the packaging and the shrimps themselves, however, remained negative.
Customs officials said they were temporarily blocking imports from the three Ecuadorian companies whose products had tested positive.
The emergence of a coronavirus group in Beijing last month has led to increased scrutiny of imported food, after the virus was found on a cutting board used to prepare imported salmon at Xinfadi’s large wholesale market .
China has banned imports from a number of overseas food producers who have reported virus outbreaks, including the main US poultry exporter Tyson Foods and the German meat company Toennies.
The country has also launched a national campaign to test refrigerated food products imported from “high risk countries”.
Bi said Chinese customs officials have tested more than 220,000 samples of food, packaging and the environment around them since the discovery of the Xinfadi cluster.
No other product showed traces of the virus, Bi said, adding that detecting traces of the virus on the shrimp did not conclusively mean that the products were contagious.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
