Team News Riveting
Beware while using frozen foods made in China. Traces of novel virus were found in at least five samples of ice cream made in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin.
The discovery has led to fresh questions and debate over the risks of catching the coronavirus from food.
Last Thursday, authorities in Tianjin, neighbouring Beijing, said three samples of ice cream had been found to contain traces of Sars-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes the disease Covid-19.
An investigation suggested that Ukrainian milk powder used to make the ice cream was the likely source, after three samples of the powder and two further samples of ice creams from the same batch were also found to contain Sars-CoV-2.
Over 2,800 samples were taken from the ice cream, packaging, manufacturing plants and retail stores. Most of the potentially contaminated ice cream had been traced and recalled, but 21 ice creams remained unaccounted for, the authorities said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said the possibility of catching Covid-19 from frozen food is low, but China has linked infections to imported food. In November, a truck driver, also from Tianjin, was infected with a strain of Covid-19 also found on pork imported from North America that he had handled, the local authorities said.
The Coronavirus in the ice cream and other food had put the Chinese authorities in a fix as experts and media suggested the coronavirus could have been brought to China via frozen products, despite there being no evidence to support this theory.
WHO experts this month arrived in China to begin their long-awaited investigation into the possible origins of the virus.
