China is calling on Canadian suppliers of pork, beef and chicken to ensure complete disinfection of meat packaging and containers.
“China has been importing a large quantity of meats this year, and has detected virus on the packaging of cold chain products many times, even as lots of disinfection has been done domestically,” Gao Guan, spokesman for the China Meat Association, said by telephone on Tuesday.
“It should be better to handle this (virus control) at the meats exporting origins, and carry out disinfection at the production plants,” as the cost would be lower, and efficiency higher, Gao added.
Reported cases have shown that contact with packaging contaminated with coronavirus could lead to human infection, said the Chinese association. It is not an official government agency.
The World Health Organization has said the risk of catching COVID-19 from frozen food is low. Chinese officials echoed that such risk was low, but there was still a risk.
“The virus is new. We are still accumulating experience when fighting against it,” Gao said.
“We should get together and discuss how to use the most scientific, efficient and low-cost way to secure public health, and trade at the same time,” Gao added.
