Recently, the positive rate of COVID-19 nucleic acid testing in imported cold chain food has increased significantly, in Beijing, Tianjin and other provinces, and the products involved range from livestock and poultry meat to aquatic products.

imported cold chain food is an important part of the consumption of Chinese residents, and cannot be banned completely. In order to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 through imported cold chain food and its packaging, relevant regulations have been issued.Foodmate has summarized the relevant requirements for reference.


1. Implementing emergency preventive measures for foreign manufacturers of imported cold chain food with positive COVID-19 nucleic acid testing

On September 11, the General Administration of Customs (GACC) issued an announcement on the implementation of emergency preventive measures for overseas manufacturers of imported cold chain foods that were detected to be positive for the COVID-19 nucleic acid, as follows:

If the same overseas manufacturer's cold chain food or its packaging is detected as positive for the COVID-19 nucleic acid for the first and second time, the customs will respectively suspend the acceptance of the company's product import declaration for one week, and automatically resume after the expiration;

If the same overseas production company has been tested positive for the COVID-19 nucleic acid 3 times or more, the customs will suspend the acceptance of the company's product import declaration for 4 weeks, and it will automatically resume after the expiration.

By December 2020, GACC has taken emergency preventive measures against enterprises in 10 countries, including Pakistan, Indonesia, Myanmar, Argentina, Russia, Brazil, India, Chile, Ecuador and Norway, due to the positive nucleic acid test of COVID-19.

2.imported cold chain food must have “Nucleic Acid Certificate” and “Disinfection certificate”, otherwise it cannot be sold in the market

On July 23, NHC issued the "Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of the COVID-19 Epidemic of Meat Processing Enterprises"(hereinafter referred to as the "Guideline"). The "Guideline" requires, meat processing enterprises must do a good job in tracing, self-checking, testing and storage of livestock and poultry meat, and establish and improve the traceability mechanism. imported livestock, poultry and meat products shall have “Nucleic Acid Certificate” before they are put into production. This is the first time that the state has publicly announced that imported food should have the “Nucleic Acid Certificate”.

On November 12, the State Council’s Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism held a press conference. At the meeting, Chen Xu, head of the Food Management Department of the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), said that local governments need to urge the implementation of the main responsibilities for epidemic prevention and control, and guide the enterprises to inspect and request nucleic acid test reports and disinfection certificates when purchasing imported cold chain foods. Without the qualified certificates, the imported cold chain food cannot be sold.


3.Establish a cold chain food traceability system and implement “first station code" management

Since imported cold chain food is essential, it is necessary to ensure its traceability. once the food is at risk of spreading the virus, the batches can be traced quickly within control limits.

On August 31, Zhejiang Province issued the notice to require that imported cold chain food should be traced accurately. For cold-chain food imported after May 1, 2020, the source code of cold-chain food should be pasted on the product packaging. The food producers and traders (the first station operators) who have imported cold-chain food into Zhejiang have the main responsibility for using the Zhejiang cold-chain system to code imported cold-chain food. This is the first time that the cold chain food traceability system has been launched online nationwide.

At present, provinces such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hebei, Sichuan, and Yunnan, have successively established and operated cold chain food traceability systems to further strengthen the supervision of imported cold chain food and to realize the traceability management of imported frozen meat and aquatic products.

“First station code” management, that is, the food producers and traders, who transport the imported cold chain food from outside the province, as the first station operators, shall upload the traceability data such as product varieties, specifications, batches, origin, nucleic acid testing, preventive disinfection, etc. in the system and assign the electronic traceability code for related products according to the batch.

In addition, on November 27, The State Council's COVID-19 Joint Prevention and Control System Comprehensive Team issued a notice on further improving the traceability management of cold chain food, and indicated that the construction of the traceability platform should be accelerated. Provinces including Beijing, Tianjin, Liaoning, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Shandong, Guangdong, Chongqing should complete the construction and trial operation of traceability platform in mid-December 2020, and achieve docking with national platforms by the end of December. At present, many provinces (cities) have been docked to the national platform for trial operation, and the import volume of their first cold chain food station accounts for more than 90% of the total.


4. Set up transfer stations and centralized supervision warehouses

In addition to the construction of online traceability platforms, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Shandong, Shanxi, have established centralized supervision warehouses or transfer stations to centrally manage imported cold chain food.

The centralized supervision warehouses or transfer stations are the first destinations for imported cold chain food from other provinces to enter the local area. After passing the nucleic acid test and disinfecting the packaging and obtaining the “delivery certificate”, the cold chain food can enter the local.

On August 18, Shenzhen took the lead in setting up a centralized supervision warehouse for imported frozen products. about 2 months after the warehouse was established, Shenzhen had successfully disposed of a batch of suspected positive frozen products and intercepted 1,390 positive frozen products.

For the "delivery certificate" issued by other provinces and cities, whether the destinations have achieved mutual recognition or not, specific consultation should be conducted with the destination regulatory authorities. Currently, Zhejiang province and Wuxi City recognize the "delivery certificate" issued by other provinces and cities, holding valid certificates, and may not enter the centralized supervision warehouse.

Summary

based on the above regulatory measures, China's risk prevention and control of imported cold chain food has entered normal epidemic prevention stage.

A large amount of imported food is needed for the shortage of domestic supply for the daily consumption of residents, so it is unrealistic to ban all imported food.
It requires enterprises to fully implement the main responsibility, and strictly abide by the cold chain food requirements of epidemic prevention.

When purchasing food, consumers should buy from regular channels and need to pay attention to food hygiene. Foodmate will continue to pay attention to relevant policies on the imported cold chain food, and welcome all of you to discuss.

---

Please note: Original English article of Business Division of Food Safety and Regulatory Compliance of Global Foodmate, please indicate the source from the Global Foodmate if reprint.

Business Division of Food Safety and Regulatory Compliance of Global Foodmate provides food standards & regulations research, labelling compliance consulting/Chinese label design, industry public opinion monitoring and analysis, registration services (of Infant formula, FSMP, Health food, Novel Food Ingredients, Novel Food Additives, New Varieties of Food-Related Products and Overseas manufacturers of imported food) and other comprehensive food safety solutions for domestic and overseas enterprises and institutions in food industry. 

Please feel free to contact us: +86 10 68869850, E-mail: global_info@foodmate.net