China: COVID-19 Test Done On Ice-cream in Tianjin City

Mar, 2021 - By SMI

Tianjin Daqiaodao Food Co., Ltd. was sealed on Sunday, January 17^th, 2021. The cartons and the employees were recalled for testing.

Over a year after the first COVID-19 case in China, the country has reported yet another strain of the virus. But this time the carrier is one of the most popular desserts of all, ice-cream.

A food company in Tianjun City produced 4,800 boxes of ice-cream which were later found out to be contaminated. About 2700 of those boxes have been supplied in the market. Anti-epidemic authorities investigated the process and revealed that the milk and whey powder were imported from New Zealand and Ukraine respectively. Over 1600 employees of Tianjin Daqiaodao Food Company have been quarantined. The products of Daqiaodao have been sealed after dispatching samples to the Municipal Centre of Disease Control.

A virologist from the University of Leeds explained that the virus has survived on the ice-cream due to cold temperature in the storage and its high-fat content. Not all ice-creams are prone to virus contamination, he continued. However, he stated that ‘any level of contamination is not acceptable and always a cause of concern, but the chances are that this is the result of an issue related to the production plant and the hygiene of the company.’

While a report from World Health Organization (WHO) stated that the chances of virus transmission via food/food packaging are very low and no strong evidence has been found related to it. An expert team from the WHO has arrived in China to collaborate with Chinese scientists in the research.

While virus traceability is still underway, there is misinformation and rumours circulating on the internet about avoiding consumption of ice-cream and other cold products. According to reports so far, no one is infected due to ice-cream.