Epidemiological investigations conducted so far indicate the company produced the batch of ice cream using raw materials, including milk powder imported from New Zealand and whey powder imported from Ukraine, say reports.
Coronavirus has been found on ice cream in North China's Tianjin after three samples tested positive for COVID-19, authorities said. It has prompted a recall of cartons from the same batch and tracking of the sold products is ongoing, according to the government.
Anti-epidemic authorities in north China's Tianjin Municipality are tracing people who may have been in contact with the batches, which were produced by Tianjin Daqiaodao Food Company, reported Sky News. The company, adjacent to Beijing, has been cordoned off and its employees are being tested for the coronavirus, reported the Global Times.
According to the Chinese daily, nucleic acid testing and epidemiological investigations on its 1,662 employees are ongoing. So far, samples from 700 people have come back negative and the results for the rest of the employees remain to be seen.
All of Tianjin Daqiaodao’s products have also been sealed and contained after the firm sent three samples to the municipal centre for disease control this week – and all tested positive for COVID-19.
The Global Times said epidemiological investigations conducted so far indicate the company produced the batch of ice cream using raw materials, including milk powder imported from New Zealand and whey powder imported from Ukraine.
According to Dr Stephen Griffin -- a virologist based at the University of Leeds -- the incident should not generate “panic” and that it was “probably a one-off” which “has likely come from a person”. “We probably don’t need to panic that every bit of ice cream is suddenly going to be contaminated with coronavirus,” he told Sky News.
According to authorities, the company produced 4,836 boxes of COVID-contaminated ice cream, 2,089 of which had been sealed away in storage. A total of 935 boxes of the ice cream, out of 2,747 boxes that entered the market, were in Tianjin and only 65 were sold to markets.
Authorities have urged residents, who may have bought the product, to report their health and physical movements to those in their communities.
(COVER PHOTO: PINTEREST)
