Explainer | Are fears over catching coronavirus from imported frozen food justified? And what can be done to minimise risks

Name: South Korea sees biggest coronavirus outbreak in five months with cases linked to church protest
Uploaded: 2020-08-18T11:02:02.000Z
Duration: 1 min 27 s
Description: South Korea sees biggest coronavirus outbreak in five months with cases linked to church protest

Concerns first raised after two cities in mainland China detected virus on the surface of frozen food and packaging on shipments from South America

But public health experts said the virus detected on frozen food samples was already dead, which meant it would not be able to infect people

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There is no evidence the coronavirus can be transmitted via food. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Zoe Low

Published: 7:02pm, 18 Aug 2020Updated: 7:37pm, 18 Aug 2020

As Hong Kong continues to battle its third wave of coronavirus infections, fears over contaminated frozen food have prompted local authorities to suspend imports of chicken from a processing plant in Brazil.

But local health experts quickly downplayed such concerns, saying the risk of catching the virus this way was low if food was thoroughly cooked.

What sparked fears in Hong Kong?

Concerns were first raised after two cities in mainland China detected the virus on the surface of frozen food and packaging on shipments from South America. Mainland authorities also found traces of the virus on the walls of shipping containers.

In Xian, capital of northwestern Shaanxi province, a sample of frozen shrimp packaging from Ecuador tested positive for the coronavirus, local health authorities said last Thursday. At the same time, authorities in Shenzhen also said they had found the virus on the surface of frozen chicken wings from Brazil, the country with the second highest number of Covid-19 infections in the world after the United States.

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South Korea sees biggest coronavirus outbreak in five months with cases linked to church protest

China later said the chicken wings had come from Brazil’s third largest pork and poultry processor, Central Cooperativa Aurora Alimentos. On Monday, the company agreed to test 11,000 workers for Covid-19. Hong Kong’s Centre for Food Safety said that batch of chicken wings was not sold in the city.