According to a spokesman for Hong Kong's Food and Environmental Hygiene Department's Centre for Food Safety, the CFS received testing reports from the health department on Tuesday indicating that four packaging samples of imported frozen food items tested positive for the COVID-19 virus during precautionary testing.
Health experts are on high alert as a new wave of illnesses becomes more difficult to contain. Daily case counts have risen dramatically in recent weeks, reaching an all-time high of 7,533 infections on Monday, overwhelming the governments' testing, medical, and isolation facilities.
Earlier, the CFS gathered 36 samples for testing from a batch of around 1,100 boxes of frozen beef imported through sea from Brazil. The virus was detected in one outside packaging sample and two inner packaging samples during testing.
Additionally, it obtained 12 samples from a batch of around 300 cartons of frozen pig skin weighing approximately 7 tons that was imported through sea from Poland. COVID-19 was detected in one packaging sample.
Since mid-2020, Hong Kong has started testing frozen food imports for COVID-19 and discovered positive samples on pomfret and cuttlefish packaging in August and November 2021.
The CFS inspected the warehouses following receipt of the test findings and directed the operators to execute a complete cleaning and disinfection.
The CFS has directed concerned importers to discard beef and pork skin from the same batches. Additionally, the CFS will increase its sampling of comparable products for testing.
According to authorities, COVID-19 is mostly conveyed via droplets, cannot multiply in food or food packaging, and is unlikely to be transmitted to humans through food consumption.
They do, however, recommend that consumers handle raw food separately, adhere to hygiene guidelines, and properly boil food.
With increased inspections of food imports, Hong Kong has once again followed mainland China's lead on COVID-19 laws. Unlike other places, China attributes the risk of COVID-19 dissemination to frozen food packaging.
Mainland China had already revealed a number of incidences of the virus being discovered on chilled food packaging, forcing goods to be rejected and exporters to lodge complaints.
According to the World Health Organization, there are no known food or packaging transmission routes.
