Chinese city of Wuhan detects Covid-19 in batch of frozen Brazilian beef

On Friday, November 13, the Chinese city of Wuhan reported that it had detected traces of Covid-19 in the packaging of a batch of Brazilian beef after intensifying testing of frozen foods this week as part of a national campaign.

In a statement, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said it found three positive samples in the beef’s outer packaging of frozen and boned meat from Brazil.

Beef entered the country at the port of Qingdao on August 7 and arrived in Wuhan on August 17, where it remained in a refrigerator until recently. The registration code of the beef shipment exporter refers to the units owned by Marfrig Global Foods S.A.

Despite this, according to a source, the entire warehouse must be sanitized because packages of products from other companies would also have tested positive for covid-19. In light of this, the initial assessment is that the problem is related to the warehouse, and not to meat.

Another factor to be considered is that the cargo was produced at the slaughterhouse in Várzea Grande (MT) and arrived in China in August. The shipment of the goods in Brazil must have occurred in the first semester because the unit in question was suspended from exporting to China between June 26 and October, after factory employees were tested positive for Covid-19.

The coronavirus first appeared in a market in this same Chinese city last year and has spread around the world.

After taking drastic measures to control the spread of the virus, in late June, China began to test imported foods for the virus as well. In September, it had found only 22 positive samples out of nearly 3 million, but with some port workers recently infected with the virus, the country has stepped up the testing and disinfection of food imports.

Chinese officials have also found the coronavirus in Argentine beef packaging in recent days, and another sample of imported beef has been found positive in Shandong, according to the province.

China is the world’s largest buyer of beef and Brazil and Argentina are its largest suppliers.

Source: Valor Econômico

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