In a recent update, China has announced a temporary ban on food imports from Ecuadorian companies. This measure came into effect immediately after detection of corona virus on packets for frozen shrimp in Beijing. There has been a recent disease outbreak in Beijing that led to fresh scrutiny on refrigerated food items.

• 

As per General Administration of Customs official Bi Kexin’s conference, the samples had been taken from the packets of of White leg shrimp at the port cities of Dalian and Xiamen, which surprisingly tested positive for the virus.

It is important to highlight here that the Tests on samples from inside the packaging and the shrimp itself returned negative.

• 

Three Ecuadorean companies imports were temporarily blocked whose products had been tested positive, the customs authority said.

No other products showed traces of the virus, Bi said, adding that the detection of virus traces on the shrimp did not conclusively mean the products were contagious.

A corona virus cluster in Beijing emerged last month, which led to increased scrutiny of imported food, just after the virus had been found on a cutting board used to prepare imported salmon at the sprawling Xinfadi wholesale market.

The Chinese customs authorities have tested more than 220,000 samples from food products, packaging and the environment surrounding them since the discovery of the Xinfadi cluster.

The country has also taken initiative for a nationwide campaign to test the imported refrigerated food products from “covid-19 high-risk countries”. The detection of virus traces on the shrimp did not mean the products were contagious, the authorities added.