Caution over cold chain imports justified
The tightened inspections China has been conducting on cold chain food imports — in an attempt to prevent a resurgence of novel coronavirus in the country — are both necessary and justifiable given that an increasing number of infections have been linked to frozen food items.
In the latest case, two cold chain storage workers in Tianjin contracted the virus last week after coming in contact with contaminated food products. Similar cases were detected earlier in the coastal port cities of Qingdao and Dalian.
China now sees the testing and complete disinfection of imported products as necessary to keep the virus at bay. While that will inevitably cause delays in custom clearance or even suspensions of shipments, such measures are necessary and indispensable under the current circumstances, especially when the virus is still wreaking havoc around the world causing thousands of deaths each day. There is no such thing as over- precaution when it comes to protecting people’s lives and health.
Yet politicians in some countries have pointed accusing fingers at China, claiming there is “no solid evidence” that imported frozen foods carry the virus. The United States, more absurdly, has tried to politicize the issue by suggesting the measures may amount to “an unfair trade barrier”.
There are diverse views on whether the virus can be transmitted to humans via food or food packaging. But what China is doing is based not only on its own findings on the ground, but also on scientific research. A recent Singapore study found that the virus can survive for 21 days after being refrigerated and frozen, which, as researchers warned, should alert food safety authorities and the food industry of a “new normal” environment where “this virus is posing a nontraditional food safety risk”.
It is the job of experts to find out the origin of a virus and how it spreads, and the fact- finding process can be long and full of twists and turns. While it is still debatable whether the presence of the virus on food packaging poses a significant health risk, to infer from China’s caution that it has overreacted with a heavy- handed approach in this regard is at best premature and unscientific, and worse illintentioned and irresponsible.
After all, China is the world’s only major country that has basically brought the spread of the virus under control and resumed its normal economic activities and social life. Its experience and expertise in preventing the spread of the virus should be acknowledged and respected.