Focus on Arts and Ecology

 The big environmental stories in the Chinese media this week (13-19 November)

Systems for importing cold and frozen foods are being put under increasing scrutiny in China to prevent the transmission of coronavirus.

On 1 November, Beijing launched its cold-chain tracing digital platform. All imported frozen food products, including beef, pork, poultry and fish have to be registered on the platform with the necessary quarantine certificates before they can enter the Beijing marketplace. On the retailing side, a QR code is displayed on the product so consumers can access information such as country of origin and quarantine inspection certificate.

In the past week, several local governments have introduced their own versions of the platform. Wuxi of Jiangsu province even combines such a system with a centralised monitoring warehouse, where all imported frozen food must be sent for inspection and disinfection before entering the city’s market.

On 9 November, the State Council released a working plan for disinfecting imported cold foods, requiring comprehensive disinfection measures to be taken before workers in China are exposed to the food.

Concerns with the cold supply chain had already been raised by the Covid-19 “second wave” in Beijing back in June, which started in a wholesale market for raw food stuff including imported frozen food. The discovery in July of coronavirus contamination on shrimp from Ecuador deepened those concerns. By then, preventive measures had already been in place at provincial level.

Zhejiang province introduced the country’s first digital tracing platform in August. Over the past few months, coronavirus contamination on imported meat products has been reported quite often, sometimes in port cities where the products first land, sometimes in inland cities where they are distributed. 

Brazil appears to have been the country of origin reported most often. Contaminated batches of frozen chicken wings and ribbon fish were reported in August and September respectively, as well as beef in October and November. Contaminated Argentine beef was also found at the port of Xiamen this Wednesday. 

In October, China’s Center for Disease Control (CDC) for the first time confirmed that exposure to contaminated packages can cause infection. As a major food importer, China’s response to such findings will likely have big implications on exporters.

Read our recent article on how licensing works for meat exporters in the Brazilian Amazon.

(Sources: China Dialogue)