Hong Kong authorities said they discovered COVID-19 in samples taken from packs of imported frozen beef from Brazil and frozen pork hides from ... Poland, and announced to intensify controls on imported food.

The Food Safety Center (CFS) took 36 samples for testing from a batch of approximately 1,100 cartons of frozen beef with a total weight of 29 tons, imported from Brazil by sea. Several samples of the packaging turned out to be positive. 12 samples were also collected from a batch of approx. 300 cartons of frozen pork skin weighing approx. 7 tons, imported from Poland. One sample here tested positive for COVID-19. The government said CFS had ordered importers to get rid of beef and pork hides from the same lots. In Hong Kong, frozen food imports are monitored for COVID-19 from mid-2020.

Experts say COVID-19 is mainly transmitted by airborne droplets and cannot reproduce in food. So it is unlikely to be transmitted to humans through food consumption. Nevertheless, it is recommended that people handle raw food with care, follow good hygiene practices, and cook their food thoroughly.
With intensified food import inspections, Hong Kong is once again following mainland China's footsteps on COVID-19 policy. Unlike other countries, China is replacing frozen food packaging due to the risk of spreading COVID-19.

China has announced a series of detections of the virus on frozen food packages, which has resulted in a recall of the defective product. In turn, the World Health Organization says that neither food nor packaging are confirmed routes of transmission of the virus.

Source: Reuters