Two seafood vendors eat their lunch before another wave of customers arrive at a wet market in Shanghai. File Photo: Yang Hui/GT

Coronavirus has been found on outer packaging of cold-chain food products in at least six locations across China in the last four days, reports showed. The rise in the number of cases came as China strengthened measures to reduce infection risks brought by imported cold-chain food. 

On Saturday, novel coronavirus was detected on the outer packaging of frozen hairtail imported from India that was sold on a local market in Linfen, North China's Shanxi Province. On Friday, the outer packaging of beef imported from Brazil was found to be infected with coronavirus in Hefei, Central China's Anhui Province and another frozen food product in Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang also tested positive for the virus. 

Previously, contaminated outer packaging of frozen beef imported from Argentina was found in a meat company in Yingkou, Northeast China's Liaoning Province. On Wednesday, similar cases were also found in frozen pork from Brazil in Yuhuan, East China's Zhejiang Province and beef from Argentina in Jingmen, Central China's Hubei Province.

In a recent meeting, the State Administration for Market Regulation called on port cities in China to properly implement measures to reduce risks brought by imported cold-chain food. 

It said that imported cold-chain food that does not have inspection and quarantine certificates, nucleic acid tests, disinfection certificates and traceability data is not allowed to be sold in markets. 

Global Times