China Obsessed with Looking for Covid on Imported Food Shipments

Chinese officials eager to shift blame for covid-19 have reported finding traces of the virus on a handful of imported frozen meat and seafood boxes out of thousands tested after a massive testing campaign was ordered. A box of chicken legs appears to be the only domestic product that has been tested--and it came from a multinational company operating in China. Inactive virus was found on the outside of boxes; none of the food inside the boxes tested positive.

Chinese official disinfects U.S. pork boxes that tested positive for covid-19.
The meat itself did not test positive.

On November 25, Chinese food safety officials announced that covid-19 virus had been detected on the packaging of dozens of shipments of imported frozen food in a number of localities. The deputy director of the national food safety risk assessment center attributed the surge in positive test results to the increase in number of tests performed, and warned consumers not to panic because positive results were found on only 4.8 per 100,000 samples. Virus was found only on packaging, not in the food itself. The official explained that traces of the virus DNA can remain on surfaces after disinfection inactivates the virus. 

In each instance, hundreds of follow-up tests of workers, storage facilities, containers, and processing equipment were all negative. On November 24, China's State Council ordered an "Imported food cold chain comprehensive disinfection work program" that requires imported frozen food to be held separately at ports, tested, and disinfected, before being released to the domestic market.

Most positive tests of imported meat and seafood reported in Chinese news media in mid-late November and December appear to have been found in cold storage warehouses in ports such as Dalian, Tianjin, and Yingkou, and in second- or third-tier cities. None have been reported in tier-1 cities Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou. 

Disinfecting a food market in Zhejiang Province.

In Shanghai--the largest entry point for imported meat and seafood--officials announced in November that they had found no positive covid results in tests of 130,000 samples of imported food and 2,432 samples taken from trucks, containers, and cold-storage warehouses in the imported food cold chain.

News reports say that several packages of Argentine beef that had the virus detected at inland warehouses entered China through the Shanghai port: 

• One shipment in Jingzhou City of Hubei Province tested positive a month after it had arrived in China. The shipment was produced in Argentina during August-September, reached the Shanghai port October 28, was shipped to Zhengzhou in Henan Province October 30, and reached a warehouse in Jingzhou City in Hubei Province November 15, before virus was discovered on packaging December 2.
• Another Argentine beef package tested positive on December 20 in a Huzhou, Zhejiang Province market more than a month after it entered through the Shanghai port on November 12 (130 other samples and 40 workers in this market all tested negative).
• A frozen beef package from Argentina that tested positive in Chongqing December 15 also came from Shanghai.
• A 27-tonne shipment of Brazilian beef in Wuhan that tested positive November 12 had arrived at the Qingdao port August 7 and had been in the warehouse in Wuhan since August 17.

On December 15, the first instance of a positive covid-19 test result for domestic food packaging was reported by a supermarket in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. "Third party testing" discovered the virus on packaging of one of three shipments of chicken legs produced by a factory in Anhui Province. It is unclear why these chicken legs were being tested since there are no other indications that domestic food products are being tested. The chicken legs just happened to be supplied by a wholly-owned subsidiary of a prominent American company. The company supplies chickens from its own farms for the processing plant, stores them in its own facility, and ships them in its own trucks. No positive results were discovered in over 2,700 other samples taken from workers, factory surfaces, trucks and warehouses. Anhui Provincial officials insisted that the packaging could not have been infected in their province. 

November-December Detections of Covid-19 virus on imported frozen food in China
Date		Province	City/county	Origin	Food
Nov	12	Hubei	Wuhan	Brazil	beef
	12	Shandong	Liangshan	ns	beef
	12	Fujian	Quanzhou	ns	frozen food
	13	Henan	Zhengzhou	Argentina	beef
	13	Gansu	Lanzhou	ns	shrimp
	13	Shandong	Jinan	Argentina	beef
	14	Shandong	Sishui	ns	fish/shellfish
	15	Shaanxi	Xi'an	Argentina	pork
	21	Guangdong	Dongguan	Argentina	chicken wings
	28	Liaoning	Dalian	Russia	cod fish
Dec	2	Hubei	Jingzhou	Argentina	beef
	4	Liaoning	Yingkou	Argentina	beef
	7	Zhejiang	Ningbo	Brazil	beef
	13	Tianjin	Binhai	Argentina	pork
	15	Jiangsu	Taizhou	USA	pig ears
	15	Jiangsu	Taizhou	China	chicken legs
	15	Chongqing	Gaoxin	Argentina	beef
	20	Zhejiang	Huzhou	Argentina	beef
	21	Liaoning	Anshan	Brazil	beef
Source: compilation of Chinese news reports.

Chinese officials have been accusing imported frozen food of bringing covid-19 into China ever since a June outbreak in Beijing that was traced to a cutting board where Norwegian salmon had been sliced. No positive samples were found in nationwide testing of markets and warehouses in mid-June that was launched the day after the discovery of covid in the Beijing market. News stories of testing in June featured several of the same markets where this month's positive tests were announced: Jingzhou, Wuhan, Chongqing, Xi'an, Ningbo and Tianjin. Earlier in November, authorities manufactured another scare linked to German pork and fish from India--also found on packaging but not in the products. China has  rejected dozens of shipments of shrimp from Ecuador for months, claiming that containers and packaging contained traces of covid-19 virus.

The New York Times noticed that China's leadership is putting great effort into creating a narrative that the virus originated outside China. There is little doubt that the excessive crackdown on imported frozen food is meant to focus attention on foreign countries as the source of the virus.

The campaign against imported frozen food doesn't seem to be meant as a trade barrier. Beijing Daily quoted an official from China's logistics and procurement federation who said that large amounts of imported frozen food are needed to fill gaps in domestic supply, a view he described as "consensus."

Ironically, the surge of frozen meat and seafood imports blamed for importing the covid-19 virus is the result of abysmal failure in controlling the African swine fever virus in 2019. The virus swept through the entire country within months, killing off at least 40 percent of the country's swine and creating the biggest meat shortage in history in 2020.