China announced on Friday (10.07.2020) that it had discovered traces of coronavirus on shrimp packaging from Ecuador, amid concerns over imports of frozen products, and banned the import of food from three Ecuadorian companies.
In the Chinese ports of Dalian (northeast) and Xiamen (east), the General Administration of Customs carried out tests on samples from a container and packages of Pacific white shrimp that tested positive for the new coronavirus.
However, samples taken from inside the packages and from the shrimp themselves were negative, a customs spokesman told reporters.
The presence of the virus on shrimp packages does not necessarily mean that the food is contagious, he said.
China is concerned about food security since an outbreak was discovered last month at a giant wholesale market in southern Beijing, after traces of the virus were detected on a cutting board of imported salmon.
Customs officials have since tested more than 220.000 samples of food products and their packaging, but say no other products have tested positive.
With information from Xinhua
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